Why Kane does NOT have to leave Tottenham

Chief Sports Writer’s must-read column

EARLY on Sunday evening, a few hours before Tottenham made their latest admission of failure by parting ways with Antonio Conte and starting the search for another new manager, Harry Kane stood on the pitch at Wembley basking in the applause of a capacity crowd.

As the England team he leads prepared to play a European Championship qualifier against Ukraine, Kane was presented with a trophy in the form of a gleaming golden boot, in recognition of his achievement in breaking the all-time England goalscoring record with his penalty against Italy in Naples on Thursday.

It is a storied record, perhaps the most prized in English football. Sir Bobby Charlton held it for 45 years with 49 goals before Wayne Rooney surpassed it in 2015 and set a new mark of 53. Now it belongs to Kane and it is likely to belong to him for a generation or more. As he held the trophy aloft at Wembley, players from both England and Ukraine applauded him, too.

Some still seek to use the juxtaposition of Kane’s scoring achievements and his lack of trophies with Spurs as a stick to beat him with, as if it will somehow undermine his legacy. The collision of Tottenham’s current woes and Kane’s relentless assault on records held by legends like Rooney, Alan Shearer and Jimmy Greaves has thrown the contrast into sharp relief.

But, please, spare me all the ‘ poor Harry’ bleating from supporters of other clubs. Spare me the faux-pity aimed at Kane for being at a club that has not won a major trophy for 15 years. Spare me the idea that his career has been devalued by Spurs’ drought. Spare me the idea his lack of medals is something that will be held against him when he retires, if it remains that way. Spare me the idea he is a prisoner at Spurs. It simply isn’t true.

IT may be used as a reason to mock him by detractors, but it is tempting to think some fans of other teams hope that mockery may act as a lever to get him to join their club instead.

What Manchester United would give to have Kane in their team. What Chelsea would give to have him. He would improve any side in the Premier League, with the possible exception of Manchester City, so it is little wonder opposition fans want him out of Spurs.

The debate about Tottenham and Kane, and should he stay or should he go, is a cyclical argument that rages and then recedes almost every season. It reaches peaks and then dwindles into troughs and with his contract due to expire at the end of next season and Kane turning 30 in the summer, we are approaching a point of maximum volume. Maybe this summer will be the summer that Spurs chief executive Daniel Levy finally decides to cash in.

Kane may well leave this summer. It appeared he was open to a move to City two years ago but the move never came. The idea that he has to move to give his career legitimacy, though, is a fallacy.

It relies on the onedimensional idea that success in football is measured purely on how many trinkets you can hang round your neck, or how many pictures you have of yourself lifting a tin pot over your head.

Football is a team sport and trophies are the ultimate expression of success — of course they are to be valued and aspired to. But let me ask you this: Alan Shearer is one of England’s greatest ever strikers, too, and what will you remember him for? Winning a title with Blackburn Rovers? Maybe, but I very much doubt it. I think of Shearer and of the fact that he is the record goalscorer for his hometown club, Newcastle United, and that he will be revered by their fans for the rest of his life. He never won a trophy at St James’ Park. I think of Greaves and I do not think of a player who never won a league title for any of the clubs he played for. I think of a striker who was held in the greatest esteem as a goalscorer and as a man for his whole life because of his ability, because of the pleasure and the joy he brought fans and because of the records he set. His 357 goals in the top tier of English football is a mark that may never be broken. Who cares that he never won a championship?

Success means different things to different people. So poor Harry? Just get him out of there? Do me a favour. If Kane retired tomorrow, if he retired without ever winning a trophy for Spurs, he would still be regarded as one of the greats of the English game and a hero for Spurs fans for eternity. That’s not everything, and it is obvious Kane is desperate to win trophies, but it is still not a bad bargain.

There is this, too — despite the fact he has not won trophies at Spurs, playing for the club has given him the platform to play in a Champions League final, to become England captain, to win the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup, to play in the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley, to break the England goalscoring record and to be the leader of a team that is heading towards next year’s Euros in Germany with the best chance of winning a trophy for this country since 1966.

AMOVE can bring problems as well as opportunities. Look at how it has worked out so far for Kalvin Phillips at Manchester City, say. Spurs may not have given Kane trophies but they have offered him stability.

Maybe they will hire Julian Nagelsmann or Mauricio Pochettino to replace Conte. Maybe that will be the catalyst for the improvements Spurs must make. Maybe one of them will have the effect on Spurs that Erik ten Hag has had on United and Mikel Arteta has had at Arsenal.

And if Kane moves, given that he cannot realistically go to City or Arsenal, the country’s top two teams, where can he go that gives him a guarantee of success? United would be his best bet but is still a gamble. And if he moves abroad, his chances of beating Shearer’s Premier League record of 260 goals will disappear.

The odds are Kane will thrive wherever he goes, he is that good. But the big picture suggests that England, rather than any club, represents his best chance of glory in the years to come.

If Kane captains England to victory in Germany next year or at the World Cup in 2026, he will be this generation’s Bobby Moore. And nobody ever asked Moore about what he didn’t achieve for his club.