Why Harry Kane Is the 1 Tottenham Player Chelsea Should Look to Sign
There’s a song Chelsea fans sing about Willian and how he turned his back on Tottenham Hotspur at the last minute to join the Blues instead.
Now that Willian has been the club’s player of the season thus far, it’s being sung more than ever at Stamford Bridge.
It’s inevitable Chelsea fans will be in tune to goad their rivals at White Hart Lane on Sunday, too.
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We can only assume that if Jose Mourinho had his way, Chelsea fans would be singing something similar about Harry Kane.
It’s been just a year since he burst onto the scene in north London, yet Kane is the hottest property in English football right now.
And rightly so.
He has the sort of capabilities that every manager desires, namely his prowess in front of goal.
No other English player has scored more goals in the past 12 months than Kane. Indeed, no Chelsea player has, either.
It’s impressive enough, but then looking at the wider picture makes it even more so.
Until the start of last season, Kane had made just 26 appearances for Spurs in the three years since his 2011 debut against Hearts in the UEFA Europa League.
He was far from a regular, and it took a leap of faith from Mauricio Pochettino to propel to him to the forefront of the English game.
It was in late October when the then-21-year-old transformed Spurs’ season. He did so almost instantly, scoring a hat-trick against Asteras in Europe, not looking back since.
In the calendar year that's followed, Kane has scored 37 times for Spurs.
He didn’t have a pre-season to build up that momentum, nor did he have a run of games before the goals started coming.
He had started just four games all season, so his impact was pretty much instantaneous. A bolt from the blue.
This season has seen Kane sustain that form, and it's no coincidence that Pochettino's men have hit a purple patch since the striker returned to his powerful best last month against Bournemouth.
He scored a hat-trick again that day, too, and since that 5-1 win, Spurs have won four and drawn once. Had they shown a bit more guile against Arsenal, they would have left the Emirates Stadium with all three points from a game they deserved to win, too.
The point with Kane is that he's infectious. Regardless of his youth and lack of experience when we consider other strikers throughout Europe, let alone the Premier League, he's a player who makes things happen.
He has the desire to compete, and from him down, Spurs have the platform to get at teams and cause the sorts of problems Pochettino craves with his high press.
They did exactly that last week against West Ham United, tearing Slaven Bilic's side to pieces.
It wasn't any ordinary West Ham team, either.
Bilic has a group of players who have beaten Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal on the road this term. They also took three points off Chelsea at Upton Park.
West Ham were no match for a Kane-inspired Spurs, though. They had no answer to his style, struggling to pick him up and limit his chances in front of goal as he scored twice.
Goalscoring aside, Kane doesn't get enough credit for his ability as a footballer.
Wearing the No. 10 jersey, he isn't your typical striker. He's not the sort of playmaker that tradition dictates adorns his shirt number, either.
Kane is unique in that he combines both sides of the game effectively. He's a frontman of the times.
He has enough presence to lead the line—Kane's strong in the air and can bully centre-backs—yet equally he is gifted when in possession, bringing others into play around him.
Despite all those goals last year, he still picked up five assists, which shouldn't be sniffed at for a goalscorer.
By comparison, that's superior to Diego Costa's tally of three last season. And now that Jamie Vardy has transformed himself from supplier to goalscorer, he has just one assist for Leicester City this season.
Kane is a modern player for very modern times.
That would suit Chelsea.
With Costa in Mourinho's team, Kane would still have a place at Stamford Bridge.
In fact, Mourinho would have the sort of options that he is desperate for now.
Chelsea have too much of one thing. Their attacking midfield is filled with No. 10s who have to play out of position to complete a system.
Only Pedro can offer the sort of width that stretches teams.
Eden Hazard and Willian aren't wingers in the traditional sense, but it's they who have to operate on the flanks to accommodate the likes of Oscar and Cesc Fabregas through the middle.
Fabregas is a goal provider rather than scorer—he has just six goals since joining the club in 2014—while Oscar isn't enough of a goal threat himself.
It's Costa and Hazard who are burdened with finding the back of the net for Chelsea. As we've seen this season alone, when teams counter that effectively, Chelsea are limp.
They need to add more of a serious goal threat, which a player of Kane's abilities would offer.
That wouldn't be detrimental to Costa's position up front; it's Oscar who would more than likely suffer.
When we think of the combination Kane offers—goals and creativity—it's a trade-off that comes with merits on paper at least.
The harsh reality is Kane would come at a significant premium. His goals alone are the most valuable commodity, but throw in his nationality—not to mention a cross-city rivalry—and Mourinho would be looking at having to surpass the fee Chelsea paid for Fernando Torres in 2011 if he was ever to get hold of Kane.
"I didn't know him when he wasn't playing in the first team [at Spurs]," Mourinho said of Kane this week.
"I only noticed when he started playing [regularly] and obviously it's not difficult to feel a good striker."
Chelsea felt a good striker on New Year's Day when Kane pummelled the Blues defence into submission as Spurs won 5-3.
So much has changed since then. Chelsea have regressed to a side looking to lock down opponents at every opportunity, while Spurs have developed into a side with serious credentials at mounting a title challenge at least.
Put Kane in this Chelsea team, and we could be saying the same about Chelsea this season.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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