Kane can rule the world in Qatar... and I’d love to see Liverpool bring him crown he so deserves at club level
I’LL bet Harry Kane is looking at England’s World Cup draw and thinking he has half a chance of lifting the trophy next winter.
And that is why he’ll also be thinking very hard, again, about his club future before then.
It sounds insane, but should he win the World Cup – and why not, it’s definitely possible after finishing fourth and second with England at the last two major tournaments? – it would be his FIRST trophy.
It doesn’t sound possible, does it?
We’re talking about a striker who it’s not a question of ‘if ’ but ‘when’ he will become his country’s leading scorer of all time.
We’re talking about the best English goalscorer of his generation.
Yet the only medals he’s got are as a runner-up. With Tottenham, that’s a couple of League Cup runners-up, and the Champions League when they lost to Liverpool in the final.
And I can tell you, no professional player cares about runners-up medals.
Sometimes, I don’t think people realise that the top-line pro footballers, and that’s basically anyone who plays in the Premier League, are used to winning things.
They did it constantly getting into the game. And that winning mentality is why they’re playing at the top level.
So Kane’s got that mentality. Of course he wants to earn decent money, he wants his talent to be rewarded, who the hell doesn’t? But he wants to WIN things.
I was the same at Liverpool. I had a period where we were the nearly men like Spurs are. We were in the conversation, but always fell short to the serial winners of Manchester United and Arsenal. It hurt. And I won’t lie, I did think about leaving Anfield because I was sounded out by both those clubs.
Kane is in the same position. He almost joined Manchester City, and I have no doubt the biggest clubs will be back in for him this summer. I’d be amazed if Erling Haaland doesn’t join City, so he won’t go there, but there will be others.
United will be in. And this is a bit leftfield, but I’ve said before that
Liverpool could do worse than go for him, because he’s got that ability to drop deep like Roberto Firmino, and he can guarantee goals.
So Harry has a question to ask. Are Spurs closer now to winning trophies? Objectively, and without wanting to put them down, most people would say they’re further away than before.
Harry’s close to writing his name in England legend, he has a proper chance of winning the World Cup, but if he stays at a club in transition, he’s no closer to getting any trophies.
That means he’ll be thinking he has to go… which is not any great insight from me, because he thought that last summer – and here
we are again in the same situation. He’ll be 29 in July, so while I’m not saying it’s his last chance, given that players now can go on for much longer at the top level, it’s his optimum chance.
I know he’ll have that ambition to win things. City would virtually have guaranteed it, but if that’s not going to happen, then I’m sure he’ll have the inner belief that tells him he can be the catalyst for the likes of United.
And I know Tottenham fans will be saying, ‘Why can’t he be a catalyst for us?’, but it’s a judgement call he’ll have to make this summer. Which is the bigger club, for a start, and what do both clubs need?
It’s stating the bleeding obvious, but Spurs already have Harry Kane – and they’ve won nothing with him.
I loved Liverpool, but I left them, because of ambition. It was an ambition to play games in my case, but I went to Leeds because I genuinely believed I could be the difference for them as they challenged for honours.
People forget this, but we won on New Year’s Day to go top of the league, and we had a team who could – probably should – have won the title.
It all collapsed there for different reasons, but I knew I could bring them something they didn’t have.
Kane will have that ambition. He’s guaranteed a game at Spurs, but he’ll be burning to win something. Even if he becomes an England legend by winning the World Cup, I can guarantee he’d still want more. Which is why I think that we’ll be talking about the same transfer story this coming summer as we
did last summer.
The best of his era ...and he’s still won nothing