Might Harry Kane's Coronation Come Too Quickly?
In four loan spells with Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City—from 2009 through 2013—Harry Kane played 56 league games and scored 14 goals. Gaining senior-football experience the now-21-year-old showed glimpses of being a decent top-tier striker, but nothing like what 2014/15 has shown.
Tottenham Hotspur took 14 points from their first 10 Premier League games (4W-2D-4L). New manager Mauricio Pochettino implementing his philosophy at White Hart Lane is partially to blame for Spurs' sluggish start, but the primary culprit was subpar centre-forward play.
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Receiving three goals from recognised forwards (one coming from a substituting Kane) in Tottenham's first 10 league fixtures, Pochettino elected to downgrade Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor—opting for his Capital One Cup and Europa League-destroying youngster.
Kane required nine goals in cup competitions to earn his first EPL start for Spurs this season—and he has yet to miss one since. Eighteen goals in 20 league starts, the recent England debutant has collected two Premier League Player of the Month awards and his 19 overall goals are joint-first in the Golden Boot race.
Taking supreme notice, the footballing world has begun to pontificate about the Tottenham forward's staying power. Producing the season of his burgeoning career: Is 2014/15 Kane's ground floor, his ceiling or simply an aberration?
Penalty-box movement, physicality, height/heading ability and clinical prowess are standard elements of his game; strikers can provide their descendants comfortable lifestyles on these characteristics alone, so Kane should not be an aberration, but these things cannot be projected with 100 percent accuracy.
Netting 30 times in all competitions for club and country this season—statistically speaking—this could be Kane's ceiling. Judging players on statistics alone, however, can be a slippery slope. Kane becoming a better all-round footballer in three seasons, yet scoring fewer goals is not madness to envision.
Teams will learn the 21-year-old's game, study his strengths and weaknesses and be better prepared as years progress. Still learning his craft, stability and injury-free seasons will partly determine Kane's potential, but him flying or floundering will depend primarily on his ability to cope with familiarity.
The question being asked should not be: Is Harry Kane a flash in the pan?
Rather, the question being asked should be: Can Harry Kane win Tottenham trophies?
Having a career year—no doubt setting his mark—Kane's exploits have made no improvement on Spurs' league position. Finishing sixth in 2013/14, the north Londoners are currently seventh (albeit on goal difference). Should 19 goals in 20 starts not be enough to comfortably secure European football, asking the striker to increase proportionately next season is an improbable (if not impossible) mission.
Therein lies the problem.
Kane has a brilliant 2014/15, Tottenham struggle—nobody blames the striker.
Kane declines in 2015/16, Tottenham struggle—everybody blames the striker.
Kane declines in 2015/16, Tottenham play well—the striker was overrated.
Coupled with his fantastic goalscoring record and media pressure, the Harry Kane experiment cannot merely have a poor outing next season, the "No. 9" must rinse and repeat the same performance while Tottenham improve in kind—else the same hype machine, which has consumed vast numbers of young English starlets, will strike again.
The notion "if you have done something once, you can do it all the time," is a dangerous idea to start installing.
Kane has enjoyed the perfect storm of expectation and finding form, but should one or both of those variables leave the equation—parties who enjoyed building the Chingford lad up as White Hart Lane's saviour will have little to no problem tearing him down for the sake of a click, sold newspaper or retweet.
Instant coffee, instant replay, instant classic—we live in an instant world, but does time exist for things to develop anymore? Kane's rise to prominence is a by-product of his stellar play but also clamouring to have the next best thing as soon as possible. An understandable feeling, but projecting him as the next great Premier League striker is premature.
It is possible Tottenham have found their talisman for the next decade, but it is equally possible the 21-year-old forward will vanish from our collective conscious as quickly as he entered it. Kane, and those watching him play football, should simply enjoy the moment(s) at hand.
William Shakespeare once wrote: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown;" giving Kane his coronation before proven, sustained excellence is begging for a tragedy.
*Stats via WhoScored.com; transfer fees via Soccerbase.com where not noted.
