Kane revival... Thank Conte
SOUTHGATE GIVES SPURS BOSS THUMBS-UP
GARETH SOUTHGATE knows Harry Kane is a lot happier, and his captain will bounce back into the England camp with renewed enthusiasm this week.
The man he has to thank for it is Spurs boss Antonio Conte.
The twin disappointment of the Euro 2020 Final defeat to Italy last summer and his failed move to Manchester City affected Kane badly.
And it was only after Conte took over at Tottenham in November that the striker – slowly at first, but more rapidly in recent weeks with seven Premier League goals in his last six games – started to rediscover his mojo.
Southgate (below) said: “Firstly, it has been good to see Harry scoring – he’s always a happier animal when he comes in if he’s been scoring. “Physically, the way Antonio works the team and trains the team, that will have been good for Harry, to help get the best level out of him.
“His performance at Manchester City was exceptional. For any player, that’s the beauty of sport. “You can be in a difficult period, but with one or two good performances you can be out the other side.
“These are challenges that every athlete, every sportsperson faces, consistently, and our players are no different.”
Southgate will welcome plenty of players who have been in fine form and he knows that, even those City stars such as Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish – who have not played week in, week out since he last saw them in November – can be relied upon.
He added: “The competition for places every time they play, every training session they have, they don’t want to be in a team that concedes a goal, never mind one that loses or drop points.
“You can quickly lose your place in a team, so the levels are extremely high and, when they come to work with us, they bring that with them, they bring those habits, that expectation that is there every day.
“They are going to compete and that’s why, when your players are in those big matches all the time, it’s a positive for England.
“It can be a determining factor on our selection because you know how they are going to perform in those really big matches and you know their mentality to win.”
Southgate also has no worries about Mason Mount and Reece James, despite the chaos at Chelsea.
He said: “I hadn’t really considered their situation as being any more difficult than the various situations all of the other players have at their clubs.
“Reece has missed a little bit of football recently, but, with Mason, he looks in the right place in terms of how he is on the pitch.
“That’s as good an indicator as most to where players are mentally.”