Harry Kane, It’s Time To Go

After their latest disappointment, it is time for Harry Kane to leave Tottenham…

Harry Kane, lad, you do not need this negativity in your life. You are a fantastic player; you do not need to be dealing with this.

Now, we love loyalty here. Players building a connection with a club and supporters, sticking out through hard times to be there when the success is had, leaving as a cult hero among a community of people. That is an aspect of football that seems to be dwindling, rightly or wrongly, in this new generation. This is a very nice aspect of the sport for me, someone who supports two clubs that, in the grand scheme of the current football world, are not “big” clubs. We should love the amount of love and dedication and loyalty that Kane has shown Tottenham over the years, and he is without a doubt the most important Spurs player of this generation and one of the best to play for the club in my lifetime, if not ever.

But come on, man. You deserve so much better than this.

Tottenham’s 3-2 aggregate defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League, the latest in a long line of crushing disappointments, shows just how far away Spurs are from winning major honors. From the highs of the Pochettino era, Spurs have now fallen to the outside of the frame of main contenders, having to scrap for a Europa League place last season and possibly not finishing in a European place at all this season. They were one of the best teams in the league just a few years ago, but now they have fallen to a level where having talented players cannot save them from being largely forgettable. We are reaching the end of one of the brightest eras in the history of this club, an era that gave them a player who will likely end his career as one of the best Premier League strikers ever, and there is nothing to show for it.

Now, before you all come at me and say “but actually…”, yes, I know Spurs are in the EFL Cup Final. Yes, I know anything can happen in a cup final. While any halfway sentient living being would look at that match up and favor Manchester City and their team of football-playing terminator robots, anything can happen. And yes, I understand that, for a club that has not won a trophy since 2008 (that being their only trophy since 1991), winning the EFL Cup is progress. As a supporter of a club that has not won a trophy since 1995, I would gladly take Everton winning the EFL Cup to break that trophy drought.

But after all of these years, all of these goals scored, all of the fight and sacrifice, just an EFL Cup? Is that worth Harry Kane wasting his entire prime at this club? To have won the same amount of domestic honors for Spurs as Jermaine Jenas? To say that you have one (1) more trophy than Matt Le Tissier? And you are supposed to be one of the best English strikers ever? One of the best players in the world?

If there is one thing that was proven by that game in Zagreb, it is that the club has gone backwards under Mourinho. Tottenham’s peak, going wire-to-wire with Leicester for the title in 2016 and making the Champions League Final in 2018, is just that, a peak. They are descending down the mountain, the Pochettino highs getting further and further away as each day and each match passes. Mourinho was brought in to make this club into winners and reverse the defensive frailties that were becoming exposed under Pochettino, yet we now find Spurs out of Europe after a calamitous defensive display in Zagreb, ripped to shreds by Arsenal in the North London Derby, and falling further behind the race for European places. They are no closer to winning a league title than they were in 2016, and they have seemingly lost the traits that made them a Champions League constant under Pochettino.

This is obviously not Harry Kane’s fault. Without him, Spurs would likely be a mid-table team. But Kane’s adamant loyalty to a team that does not deserve a player of his talent is, quite frankly, ruining what could be a legendary career. Should he stay in the Premier League, it is very possible Kane will end up as a top four all-time league goalscorer, but that is about it. Will his amazing talent be overshadowed by being the “almost trophy winner”? He almost won a league title, he almost made it to a World Cup Final, he almost won a Champions League. Will this put him in the Le Tissier category of player instead of the Shearer or Agüero or Henry category? And if this admittedly fairly-ridiculous-but-not-completely-off-base take is even remotely close to being the case, then why should he stay at Spurs?

Kane clearly deserves better. He deserves to be playing for a club that is contending for league titles and European honors on a regular basis, and it is clear that Spurs are no longer that club. It is also clear that there is definitely a market for a player of Kane’s quality. Dortmund’s Erling Håland is obviously the most-wanted striker on planet Earth at the moment, but obviously only one club can sign him. Whether that be Real Madrid or Man City or Chelsea or whoever, that will still leave plenty of teams needing a striker who are unable to secure the Norwegian’s signature. And that is where Kane comes into the picture.

If it has not happened already, I imagine we will start seeing reports of Kane demanding to leave Spurs. Since he is still under contract at the club until 2024, Spurs will likely not be motivated to sell him for anything under a £120 million-plus mega deal, a world-class fee for a world-class player. The financial impact of the COVID Pandemic likely means that deal is not possible this summer for the vast majority of top teams in Europe, but it is still possible that Kane is able to pressure Tottenham to accept a lower bid. Who would be the contenders for his signature? Manchester United need a striker. Chelsea and Manchester City could be involved if they do not sign Håland. The same goes for Real Madrid and Barcelona, should Barcelona figure out how to balance their books that quickly. All of those teams, to varying degrees, would give Kane a much better opportunity to contend for silverware than this current Spurs team. And at the end of the day, Kane deserves his chance at winning trophies. He deserves to be playing for a team that is contending for league titles and Champions League glory, and right now, Spurs do not appear to be one of those teams. He has simply been wasting away his prime footballing years as an unbelievable player on a team that is at least good enough to be in conversations around top teams, but not good enough to actually be hoisting major honors or to contend on the biggest stages.

Harry, take this advice from someone who you have never and will never meet in your whole life. I know, I am clearly a very reputable voice, but still hear me out. Leave Tottenham. Push to leave the club. You have given them years and years of faithful, unquestioning loyalty and service. You are not a “Judas” figure for doing so, and there is no one on the planet that can question how loyal you have been to the club. But now you deserve to chase after the highest honors and play under the brightest lights, and at the moment, that requires leaving Spurs.

You do not owe them anything. You deserve your chance at greatness.