This evening in the Football Transfer Tavern, Tottenham Hotspur fans are casting their minds back to this time last year.
The reason they are doing this is because if you would’ve said to them then that Harry Kane would’ve gone on to plunder 21 Premier League goals, would’ve been named PFA Young Player of the Year and would be subject to intense transfer speculation from Manchester United, they would’ve thought you were trying to imitate a comedian.
While Spurs fans always had high hopes for their local prospect, they could’ve never foreseen the scintillating form in which Kane displayed in the 2014/15 campaign, undoubtedly establishing himself as Tottenham’s most important player since Gareth Bale a few seasons back.
While like most other top six clubs, Tottenham always start a new season with the intention to deliver the Premier League title, all Spurs fans would be delighted with a 2015/16 season that saw Mauricio Pochettino steer the Lilywhites back into the Champions League.
Qualification into the tournament has proved elusive in recent seasons and with competition in the Premier League as tough as ever, Pochettino will have to be shrewd in the transfer market this summer while keeping all of his better players at White Hart Lane.
Kane is most definitely their most prized asset and if you believe what you read in the press, Spurs might have to grow used to fending off a series of rather large bids for his services from rival pastures this summer.
Nevertheless, we have identified five reasons why Kane can continue to be instrumental in Tottenham’s title challenge next season.
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Click on Mauricio Pochettino below to reveal the 5 reasons Harry Kane can be key to Tottenham’s title challenge next season.
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Because ‘one season wonder’ jibes don’t apply to him
The simple fact of the matter is that you don’t score 21 goals in a Premier League season by fluke.
After actually figuring far less in the opening months of the campaign compared to the way in which he finished it, Kane’s goalscoring is all the more impressive given this fact and the skill which sets him apart from his striking counterparts is his movement.
Not a speed merchant by any stretch of the imagination, Kane has relied on his incredible movement in and around the box to score an entire plethora of different types of goals.
Rival fans, most usually Arsenal supporters have claimed that Kane will be a ‘one season wonder’ but in the cold light of day, the 21-year-old is only going to improve and as mentioned, 21 goals in the top flight doesn’t come by chance!
He is trusted as the main man for club and country
He didn’t start for England Under 21s in their pre European Championship friendly against Belarus at Oakwell last week due to having performed for Tottenham in their end-of-season tour of Asia and Australia but the full expectation is that Harry Kane will be Gareth Southgate’s main man up top at the tournament in the Czech Republic.
Kane actually emerged against Belarus from the bench in the second half of that game and was given the captain’s armband to boot, a sign that he is trusted as a leader from the front and this has been the case at club level as well.
In football, we speak a lot about a striker yielding his best form when they recognise that they’re loved or are trusted as the main man in a 4-5-1 formation and Kane undoubtedly fits this category.
Ever since Mauricio Pochettino effectively gave up on Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor as trusted first team options at the start of 2014/15, Kane hasn’t looked back and started scoring, scoring and then scoring some more.
Having registered on the final day against Everton, not to mention against Sydney FC in their end-of-season tour, Kane is continuing to find the back of the net.
The fact he has managed to buck the trend of being *too good for Under 21 duty* also shows that he is very much a project player and a pro in which England are placing a lot of hopes on.
With England having performed so poorly at international tournaments at the senior level, the importance of tournament experience for Kane cannot be underestimated and fatigue aside, will continue to put him in good stead to succeed in 2015/16.
Because he’s playing for a place at Euro 2016
As alluded to on our previous slide, Kane is completely trusted at both domestic and international level and after all, he even boasts a record of one game, one goal for the senior England team courtesy of that strike against Lithuania back in March.
The player himself must boast personal desire and ambition in abundance having grasped his opportunity as the main man in Spurs’ starting eleven with both hands and with Euro 2016 to come at the end of next season, you can bet that Kane boasts the ability to turn on the goalscoring next term as a dress rehearsal ahead of the tournament.
He will of course have to battle for a starting place in Roy Hodgson’s final squad with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge but if Kane manages to equal or better his 21 strikes scored this term, he has to be a starter in France doesn’t he?
With the player having described his international debut and subsequent goal as a dream back in March, it will naturally be a dream to be representing the Three Lions at the senior European Championships next summer and Kane will have this in mind all of next season.
He’s already done it against credible opposition
Out of all of the jibes that exist in football, isn’t the ‘he hasn’t scored against decent opposition’ one, one of the most overused?
This jibe simply doesn’t apply for Kane who rival fans can’t claim hasn’t done it against top sides or has only produced against the sides towards the bottom half of the Premier League.
Kane’s 21 league goals came against opposition of all different abilities and after all, if you’re goalscoring has managed to down the likes of London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal in those unforgettable 5-3 and 2-1 victories this past season, surely this is enough to make you a Tottenham legend right away?
With Kane having proved he can mix it against the best such as John Terry and Laurent Koscielny, there is no excuses for him next term and you can only imagine that he will improve under Pochettino who is ultimately a manager who trusts the player no end.
Because he won’t be joining Manchester United…
Those ever reliable Sky sources claimed on Friday that Manchester United are indeed interested in signing Harry Kane from Tottenham this summer but on the face of it, can you really see the move coming to avail?
United have of course managed to successfully prise the likes of Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov away from White Hart Lane in the past but we really can’t see Daniel Levy bowing to a large transfer fee this time round.
Spurs have also shown that they simply can’t turn down some transfer bids, I mean just look at Gareth Bale but to part with Kane now would really strike a dagger through the hearts of Tottenham fans everywhere.
It would confirm that Tottenham are only intent on ticking over as a business with no real ambition to succeed, not to mention the Bale transfer money having been splashed in truly unspectacular fashion with Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and Etienne Capoue representing terrible additions.
Besides, the player himself has just been immortalised as Tottenham fan favourite number one having graduated through the club’s academy as ‘one of their own’ as the chant goes.
Would he really want to give up on this status so soon in his professional career and after all, he’s a local boy to boot.
This will of course be one to watch as the summer drags on but we can only see Kane scoring goals for Tottenham next season, not Manchester United.
