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Harry Kane

Gb160

Well done boys. Good process
Jun 20, 2012
23,646
93,313
You don’t stick the knife in then show your bleeding heart online imho.
Do u think Kane was licking his lips at the idea of 'sticking the knife in'?
You're looking at the situation in a very simplistic way.
 

1966

Neutral England supporter
Nov 5, 2019
134
391
Do u think Kane was licking his lips at the idea of 'sticking the knife in'?
You're looking at the situation in a very simplistic way.
Couldn't agree more. Does anyone really think Kane's first recourse would've been to complain about Poch to Levy? The only way I could see him complaining to Levy is if he tried to communicate serious problems to Poch and nothing changed after multiple attempts.

If the rumours are true, he must've felt this was the only way to salvage things at the club - bearing in mind he loves Spurs - and he would've done it knowing far more than any of us and maybe anyone on the planet about what was really going on. Kane had little to gain on a selfish level from complaining about a manager who always plays him, and it's very unlikely there was any spite involved. He really must have felt like he and the club were trapped with no other option if he was directly involved in the decision in any way.

Furthermore, I've recently been reading more and more stuff from many sources suggesting that Poch had been pretty much deliberately half-assing his job this season. If that's true, the decision was a no-brainer regardless of who was involved at any level. If it's true, the players who care about the club practically had a moral obligation to try to accelerate the replacement and save the season.

I wrote the post below at lunchtime yesterday. At the time, it was just my speculation. Now it seems positively prophetic and has become a defence of Kane:

Yeah, [Kane and Son] are consummate professionals who've never been caught saying anything inflammatory to the media. They know how to keep their shit in-house, but you've got to imagine they've both got plenty of strong personal opinions. The bland professionalism with which they address the media is clearly not representative of 95% of what they're actually thinking, which both the players and club apparatus have been highly effective at ensuring we're not privy to.

Even as Kane's #1 fan :p, I don't make any claim to have any special knowledge about him. But based on how things are going, if Kane really thought things were that bad under Poch and really didn't believe things could improve, I wouldn't be shocked if it was him.

Hypothetically, if that ITK is true and the player is Kane, I'd be inclined to back Kane 100%. For those who are Poch In, bear in mind that Kane would know more about the situation at Spurs than almost anyone - having direct lines of communication to and the confidence of both the players and managerial class - and he probably cares more about the club's future than almost anyone too (which is why it would kinda make sense if he did say that). If it's legit, that's all she wrote.

(Seriously though, Kane is my favourite player of all time so #1 might not be far off. At least top 100??)
 
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leray

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2013
628
2,067

Good shout from someone with a worthwhile opinion.

It's also kind of controversial when Kane's season is 23 games/22 goals and Lewandowski has 29 goals in 27 games.

In club competitions is 10 goals in 15 games for Kane and 23 goals in 17 games for Lewandowski.
 

1966

Neutral England supporter
Nov 5, 2019
134
391
It's also kind of controversial when Kane's season is 23 games/22 goals and Lewandowski has 29 goals in 27 games.

In club competitions is 10 goals in 15 games for Kane and 23 goals in 17 games for Lewandowski.
I already made a long post skewering the excessive use of stats in football arguments. It's likely Villa watches them both on at least a semi-regular basis and has drawn his conclusion over some length of time using his own eyes. Personally I have more respect for that analysis than the method of looking at club stats from this season (of all the seasons to look at!).

If we're going to compare their wildly different clubs, why don't we compare their wildly different countries? Kane reamed Lewa in Euro qualifying. He reamed everyone in Euro qualifying (which is what you would expect the best striker to do tbf).

If we must use numbers, 12 goals and 5 assists in 8 games against professional international teams (i.e. no San Marino etc.) is phenomenal no matter who you're playing for or against. Ronaldo had Lithuania, who are pretty much semi-pro[1] to run up the numbers against; world champions France played Albania and Andorra and their highest scorer was Giroud(!) with 6 (0 assists); Poland had one of the weakest groups and Lewa also scored 6 (2 assists). The only player that came close to Kane was Ronaldo with the same number of non-penalty goals but 1 fewer overall, 5 fewer assists, and a worse GPM ratio.

Very few players have ever managed what Kane did in that qualifying campaign and none have ever matched his consistency in doing it -- and 8 games across a whole year is not an awful sample in football terms either. England has a top 5 or 10 national team and our group, like almost every group ever, was fairly weak but plenty of players from ridiculously strong teams in ridiculously weak groups have failed to do what Kane did over a long stretch of history. That suggests something quite significant about the individual player, and contrasts starkly with how upsettingly under-par Spurs have been over the same period of time.

Anyway, I'm going off into the weeds here but my point is just that if you're going to compare players from teams that have already matched up 7-2 this season (despite the other team having problems of their own), you might as well place more emphasis on two teams that haven't -- it's probably at least as accurate regardless of the difference in match sample size.

[1] They have several players who play at venues whose attendance is best measured in hundreds.
 
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Legacy

SC Supporter
Mar 29, 2007
2,878
6,280
Brings a tear to the eye, but the other Harry has a point
“When people talk about the players there all loving him - if the love him that much, maybe they should have started playing a bit better” - Harry Redknapp
Yeah, that's been the problem for the last 12 months. The entire team just decided to play poorly for the hell of it.
 

thelak

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,166
6,950
Do u think Kane was licking his lips at the idea of 'sticking the knife in'?
You're looking at the situation in a very simplistic way.

exactly. You can respect and admire someone but know it’s time to move on

If we are all honest Poch knew it was time to move on too and his interest started to fade from the summer we didn’t sign someone to now where he clearly wasn’t enjoying things
 

thelak

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,166
6,950
Brings a tear to the eye, but the other Harry has a point
“When people talk about the players there all loving him - if the love him that much, maybe they should have started playing a bit better” - Harry Redknapp
Is this a joke. Coming from the ultimate hypocrite who basically checked out when the England job was on offer
 

wadewill

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2005
3,159
10,446
It's also kind of controversial when Kane's season is 23 games/22 goals and Lewandowski has 29 goals in 27 games.

In club competitions is 10 goals in 15 games for Kane and 23 goals in 17 games for Lewandowski.

But that isn’t fair, Lewandowski got to play against our defence in one of those games
 

1966

Neutral England supporter
Nov 5, 2019
134
391

Reported by multiple broadsheets now so probably not bollocks. The gist is that in leiu of a large transfer budget, Jose wanted a guarantee from Levy that Kane wouldn't leave until at least 2021. It's a strong indicator of how significant Kane's role in Jose's squad is going to be. Jose did indeed want Kane at United - as per rumours at the time - and the latter has clearly been a factor in Jose taking the job.

It's excellent news for fans who were concerned about Kane looking elsewhere in the summer. But on the manager side of things, if you're not a supporter of the Jose appointment, you can flip Kane off on Saturday. ;)

Elsewhere, it's been very widely reported that immediately after being appointed, Jose told Kane that he believes he's one of the world's best strikers, which is very likely his genuine opinion, and that they will win silverware together.

As someone who's desperate to see Kane get the medals to match his plaudits, it's all rather exciting. I love the confidence bordering on arrogance that Jose brings to a club (when he's on the side you want anyway!), and he has the track record to back it up, winning trophies everywhere he goes.

I don't know if Poch was physically capable of instilling the same confidence in a team because however great Poch may be, it's just an objective fact that he hasn't won anything yet, and that has got to be at least somewhere in the back of a player's head. Personally, I think Kane will really respond to having a serial winner in charge: someone that he will feel can match his wildest ambitions while still at Spurs.

ETA: Athough it seems like Jose's year out has genuinely changed him for the better - and I'm hoping it'll stay that way - with hindsight, it looks like he actually did exceptionally well to drag that United squad to a second place finish in the league with two trophies. His work at United was definitely underrated at the time and that's only recently become clear.
 
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