Ignore Pochettino’s Harry hysteria
MAURICIO POCHETTINO is wrong about Harry Kane. Not in the assessment of him as a player. Pochettino calls Kane a killer, an assassin, and he is right. Kane has reached 20 goals in 35 games for England — eight appearances quicker than Alan Shearer, 11 faster than Michael Owen and 14 ahead of Wayne Rooney. Of the England players in a greater hurry, only Gary Lineker has kicked a ball within the last 46 years. Where Pochettino is wrong is in detecting negativity. ‘Sometimes you push him to the sky and paradise, then you put him on the outside,’ he says. ‘If Harry Kane was Italian he would be a bit more protected, because the Italian people are more protective of their players. It’s similar to Spain.’ Is it? Spain, where Gerard Pique is booed and targeted with banners even in training for his views on Catalan independence? Italy, where the Under 21 game with Denmark in 2017 had to be halted because fans were throwing bundles of fake money at their own goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was believed to be leaving AC Milan? Kane gets little but praise for England, but has a habit of scoring in gluts of goals, and that can be unnerving. The one against Croatia was his fifth in six games for club and country, preceded by a run of four blanks. Before that, four in three matches had come off the back of a five-game barren spell. Being a goalscorer, these patches worry, particularly when Kane looks tired, as he has on occasions for Tottenham this season. It isn’t criticism, more concern. Everybody knows the importance of Kane to England, not least Gareth Southgate. He wouldn’t be swapped for a striker from Spain or Italy, and nor would he get an easier ride. He is just fine where he is.