I hope Kane gets on the scoresheet today. If he does you can bet Pep will be knocking on Daniel Levy’s door with an improved bid
IF I were in Harry Kane’s shoes, I’d be champing at the bit to take on Manchester City today.
I’d be desperate to get out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and score a hat-trick – and I’d celebrate every goal vehemently, with fist pumps in front of both sets of supporters.
A performance like that would not only get my new manager at Spurs, Nuno Espirito Santo, up and running, it would get Pep Guardiola
salivating as well.
Message
And it would send the message that I was ultra-professional.
That I’d do the job for whoever I was contracted to, while putting to bed any talk about my five-day no-show.
People would be thinking, ‘Whatever you say about him, you cannot say he is not a great pro’. Regular readers will know I used to love playing – and scoring – against my old clubs.
I loved my time at Nottingham Forest, but, when I joined Liverpool, I scored two against them at Anfield and celebrated in front of the away fans.
I had a ruck with Steve Stone, who I’d got on well with at the City Ground, and gave a bit to keeper Mark Crossley, who had been my room-mate at Forest and is still a mate now.
You have to let clubs that employ you know you’re giving your all every time you play.
And there are few, if any, things worse in the game than seeing a striker score against an old club – or one who might want want him – and refuse to celebrate.
That’s all part of the juvenility of football and, if Kane were to score and not celebrate, I’d lose a lot of respect
for him.
Football used to be a game for men. You were tough, strong, durable and you knew there was physicality.
Now it’s a game for grown-up babies and not celebrating is a manifestation of that. I’d actually be more worried if I was Pep and City if Kane went out looking leggy and lethargic – that would make me think twice about cutting a deal for £150million-odd. Managers want to see what a player would do for them in such a situation.
And should Kane get on the scoresheet, I guarantee Guardiola will be thinking, ‘He hasn’t moaned, he hasn’t limped off after 20 minutes with a mysterious groin strain, he’ll be fit and ready next week if we can get him by then to play in the blue of City’.
Football used to be a game for men. Now it’s one for grown-up babies and not celebrating a
goal is the very manifestation
of that.
Fitness
The prudent thing for Nuno might be to have Kane on the bench for the next two or three games, given he has only just come back to training.
Players still work on their fitness over the summer these
Has there ever been a better last-minute swerve than the one Gini Wijnaldum busking on Las Ramblas now instead of lording it up with Lionel Messi, Sergio
days, it’s not like anyone comes back two stone overweight.
But he won’t be matchfit and the last thing Spurs want is for him to pick up a groin or calf strain and then end up staying if City can’t match their valuation.
He’d be on the bench for 65-70 minutes, a little bit like Jack Grealish was for City in the Community Shield last Saturday, if I was in charge.
Or Nuno could do what Martin O’neill did with me at Leicester City and say, ‘Give us 60 minutes and then fade away’.
Whatever Kane’s involvement today, I’d love to see him get on the scoresheet.
And if he does, you can bet Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain will be knocking on Levy’s door with an improved bid later in the week.