Does Harry Kane want to be the new Zlatan or Matt Le Tissier?

Does Harry Kane want to be a club hero or a man with trophies and a legacy around the world? Plus, mails on Man City, Ange and Kai Havertz.

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Harry Kane is 29 and is a striker that has never relied on his pace and yet people are constantly going on about him finishing his career without winning a trophy.

At 29 Zlatan (a striker that never relied on his pace) made the move from Barca to AC Milan.

Since then Zlatan won the Italian league twice, the French league 4 times, 5 domestic French cups, the Europa League and the English League cup.

Hence as he was about to turn 30 Zlatan’s goals to games ratio has been 56 goals in 86 games for Milan (first spell), 156 goals in 180 games for PSG (becoming their top scorer at the time), 29 goals in 53 games at Man U, 53 goals in 58 games at LA Galaxy and 37 goals in 78 games at Milan (second spell).

What a career that man had just in his 30’s. Playing and winning at three of the biggest clubs in the world in PSG, Man U and AC Milan, living in some of the world’s best cities and even having time to take it easy for a couple of years touring the USA and living in Beverly Hills.

If Harry Kane can achieve half of that in his career he will go down in history as a legend similar to Zlatan, if he stays a Spurs and mirrors what he’s done in the first decade of his career he will go down as a Spurs legend but have more in common with Le Tisser than Zlatan.

One final unrelated point, I’m sick of hearing how Man U just need 2 or 3 “big” signings to compete they don’t. They actually need to stop trying to buy the biggest flashy most sought after and most expensive players who generally fail as noted by their record transfers namely Pogba, Antony, Maguire, Sancho, Lukaku and Di Maria and instead focus on value for money players and letting the coach, coach the players. Apart from Grealish those 6 Man U signings are more or less more expensive than every other Man City signing.

What Man U need to do is follow City’s lead in terms of giving the manager time and space as well as crucially not over paying for players as they have done previously. City wanted Kane, Tottenham wanted silly money so City said no. This is not only to do with the money but also the message that it sends to other clubs, City won’t over pay. It also means players that come don’t have the pressure of over inflated transfer fees (Alvarez, Haaland, Akanji etc.).

Antony’s first season might not look so bad if Man U paid half the price which is closer to what he was worth.

Can Ten Hag get more from Garnacho next season, are there other young players he can blood through?

…The problem with Harry Kane’s apparent obsession with being Premier League top goal scorer is that it is a meaningless title. Alan Shearer’s currently leading the way on 260. This ignores the 20 top-flight goals he got before the Premier League was a thing. So Kane getting to 261 means what exactly? For all we know the Premier League might not even exist in 10 years time, replaced by something else to appease the thirst for money, and then the record is gazumped by something else anyway. He’s already England’s top goal scorer and will stretch that lead significantly before he retires. Nobody can question that record or that it matters.

Going to Madrid will get him titles and who knows it could even put him in the mix for the elite player awards. He has so many opportunities for major prizes to cement his legacy and .

I know that the topic of “I don’t really understand why this player gets so many minutes” has come up before (e.g. Jordan Henderson, Michael Carrick), but why the living f*** is Havertz in such apparent demand?

Over the last few days fairly decent sources have been reporting that Real Madrid want Havertz to replace Benzema, and even Bayern Munich want him to replace Lewandowski? Really?! Replacing two of the best number 9s in the world with Kai f****** Havertz? And on top of all that Chelsea want £75m for him?! What the f*** is going on? He doesn’t seem to work that hard, doesn’t score much, his movement is fine but not great, he doesn’t seem to have a great attitude, he’s not good in the air, . What am I missing here? I’d rather have Chupo-Moting, Roberto Firmino, I might even rather have Wout bloody Weghorst than Havertz.

After 30 years of following football, I’m genuinely starting to think about giving it up; not because of the rampant, horrible sports washing, players cheating, clubs cheating, but because if Kai Havertz is worth £75m to replace Benzema then I clearly have learned absolutely f*** all about football even after all this time of following it every day.

It seems put some noses out of joint. Fair enough. All comparisons have limitations. However, to clarify what we’re talking about:

Yes, Pep has improved many players, but their calibre is obviously not defined by value. Akanji’s or Zinchenko’s capability is not defined by their price, unless you’re willing to extend it to Maguire and Kepa, and then we can have a debate.

Yes, not every player in Pep’s squads is the world’s best – be it Otamendi or Kalvin Philips, but that’s not really the point. Man City won the 2018-19 title with Otamendi, but also with Kompany, Stones, and Laporte.

I’m not even suggesting that Pep is better or worse than Fergie – that’s a completely subjective call. I’m not comparing the trebles either.

The core and unvarnished point that I’m making is that Pep has not yet demonstrated that he can take a ‘relatively’ weaker team to the top. How do we define a weaker team – let’s just say when they aren’t odds-on favourites to win. Man City have always been the favourites for the Premier League under Pep. Barcelona were favourites to win the League straight through his years with the first team. This is something that Ferguson demonstrated multiple times through his career, not least in 1999.

Maybe that’ll change in the future when a new young challenger comes along and Pep has to fight him off. Until then this is something Pep hasn’t demonstrated. Now you can argue that it’s like saying that Messi hasn’t scored a single goal against Stoke City, because Pep hasn’t found himself in that situation. Except when he took Bayern to Madrid and lost, for example.

City fan here. Some random points about Spurs, the treble, FFP and the Man U takeover.

Spurs. After reading , and all of which I completely agree with, I have a slightly different take. I don’t doubt the new manager’s abilities or his competence. But he’s not the problem. Daniel Levy is.

Levy is to Spurs what Woodward was to United surely? Superb at the financial side, but a complete a*se at the actual, you know, footballing stuff. Two men whose priorities were/are ‘Top Four’ and nothing else. I’m fascinated as to why any manager, regardless of their experience, but especially one who knows for a fact that he was far from first choice, would take the Spurs job. He’s a professional. I admire the cojones on him but how can he look at what has happened to every manager since, and including, Poch and think “Yeah. I’ll make it work. It’ll be different with me”.

If you tell me that the deal is that Levy just wants Ange to get Spurs back into top 6 or even 4, whilst saying to him, ‘this’ll put you in the PL shop window’, then I understand. Otherwise, I just don’t. Like Woodward and his revolving door of managers, it will only end in tears and the likes of Brighton, Newcastle, Villa, and Brentford in the meantime are going to show the likes of Spurs and Chelsea how it’s done.

FFP. Ian H especially, and anybody else who regurgitates the 115 charges ad nauseam. There is a chap called Kieran Maguire who is an expert in English football finances (He of ‘The Price of Football’ podcast. Highly recommended). Do yourselves a favour and google ‘Kieran Maguire Stretford Paddock’ (Yes, an MUFC channel) and find the 17-minute YouTube seg explaining the whole Man City FFP situation. 8Th Feb 2023 refers. He’s neutral and brutally honest. So, watch and get some context, warts and all, from an actual expert rather than yet another pointless exercise in wishful thinking. I repeat. He is neither a City excuser, nor a City apologist. Actually, here it is…

On a side note, and likewise, Man United fans may wish to check out an interview with Kieran on the same channel yesterday (5th June) around the financial shenanigans currently taking place between the Glazers, Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe. Both interviews very, very interesting.

The treble. I am constantly astonished as to . Why would you FFS? How many supporters of how many other clubs are going to be holding street parties or ringing the church bells in the event City beat Inter?

That’s right. Absolutely b*gger all. And quite right too. When Liverpool, United, Arsenal or Chelsea were winning PL or CL titles (or both) I couldn’t care less. And in terms of the CL, if it was United or Liverpool then, natch, I was hoping the opposition would win. But, either way, it didn’t affect my week because it was so far removed from the priorities of my own club then. Namely, avoiding multiple relegations. Are there any Leicester, Leeds, or Southampton supporters on here who have booked their seats in their local on Saturday just to cheer City on? Exactly.

It’s like me writing in to say that I have no intention of watching the final of this year’s ‘Love Island’ because, whoever wins it, it won’t be as good as my fave who won it in season 1. Cheers mate. Thanks for that. Brilliant insight.

You are all perfectly welcome to your view, if you hold it, that City are some sort of Terminator/Unstoppable Juggernaut hybrid, but I don’t share it. And I don’t know any City fan of my vintage that does. You might think that Saturday night is a done deal, but we certainly don’t. As Andy D put it so succinctly yesterday:

“(..even though City have managed to find a new, different and sometimes ridiculous way to lose the Champions League each season)”.

“Waaaaaaaaaah”

That is all.

In response to , whilst winning 1 domestic trophy out of the 9 available to Steven Gerrard may be deemed as an incredible success as a Spurs fan, it does not qualify as “success at one of Scotland’s big two” I’m afraid.

Two words – Small and Club.

= an Arsenal fan using brilliant subterfuge.

…Definitely won’t be only one who writes in about this but Barry Fox says reasons for Spurs to be optimistic under the new boss include world class players like Kane, Son and….. Eric Dier.

Pass whatever you’re smoking this way Barry, cheers mate.

Reading the comments on regarding Postecoglou’s appointment, I am starting to think that Spurs might actually be damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

In the first week of June they’ve appointed a manager who has laid out such a clear vision as to convince the notoriously frugal Levy to offer him 4 years straight off the bat. A manager that brings with him a known positive style of play and a strong charisma with the press, two things which Spurs and their supporters have been crying out for since Pochettino departed and one who has won trophies wherever he has gone. Yet still people go off at them.

Yes, he has “only done it” in Australia, Japan and Scotland as yet but that list alone shows an ability to quickly adapt to differing cultures and can only have bought with it a huge raft of experience that comes with working in three hugely conflicting social climates and after all, that might be quite useful experience for a manager when stepping up. This, after all, is a particular brand of experience which not many available managers can wear as a badge of honour.

Ultimately, not one single manager comes without risk just as no signing of a Goalkeeper guarantees clean sheets and with Ange Postecoglou the risk is obviously that he has never managed in a league as highly regarded or scrutinized as the Premier League but how can anyone say that that’s really any more of a risk than signing a manager who has “never done it outside of Germany with the English or Spanish press to deal with” or “has never done it on a budget” or “has had a particularly rough spell in his last appointment”. What is needed to temper that risk is a clear strategy acted out as best as possible and in that regard, Tottenham have done exactly what is needed. They’ve clearly made approaches, done it quietly, managing to contain the noise that they so famously created in 2021 and they’ve done it swiftly, landing on a fish they want to mount on the wall with over 2 months to prepare for a new season.

To hear some talk, you’d assume they’d been privy to the discussions and in on the conference calls with the Spurs Exec-Com and potential candidates the way they throw around “should have” this and “better fit” that. If I was a Spurs fan, I’d be prepared for a long Summer of annoying Kane talk but be quietly happy that at least a relatively likable Manager has been appointed in a measured manner and the club can start doing everything non-Kane related, nice and swiftly.