The preposterous idea on Twitter about Tottenham’s Harry Kane

July 16, 2023
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Doing my usual Twitter scroll, I saw a few tweets suggesting that Harry Kane shouldn’t be the next Tottenham captain based on his desire to leave the club.

I find the idea about as repulsive as the morning after drinking too much rum and coke.

Kane has done everything for Tottenham, a club he has, aside from a few brief loan stints early on, devoted his entire career.

Kane has made sacrifices along the way. He has been forced to sit idly by watching repetitively chronic, egregious decisions by the chairman and others. He has endured six different managers, eight if you include Ryan Mason’s two brief, force-fed stints.

Tottenham’s talisman has been underpaid for many of his 10 years in the first team. If we’re being honest, he’s still being underpaid.

Daniel Levy is acutely aware of that fact, one of the reasons he’s finally pulling out all the stops to keep Kane, offering £400,000 weekly plus post-career assurances.

It sounds like you’re overcompensating, Mr. Levy. Kane must be thinking, too little, too late. If Kane’s not, I certainly am.

Since making his mark on the first team about 10 years ago, Kane has played in two finals, one of which was the 2021 Carabao Cup final, the second-fiddle domestic cup, a tournament top teams use to consistently get bench warmers on the pitch.

We all know what Kane’s other final appearance was. But even his Champions League final debut, Europe’s most prestigious club competition, was tainted.

Kane was injured leading up to the final and had to pass a late fitness test to make the starting 11, which, by the way, was a decision Mauricio Pochettino was roasted for.

Kane has the most Tottenham goals. Ever. He is 47 strikes away from pipping Alan Shearer as the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer.

He is Tottenham through and through, leading and mentoring youngsters, repeatedly putting on a brave face when all hope was lost.

He has fought for Tottenham, arguably more than anyone else in the club’s history. He is one of our own, a poignant tidbit I feel some have forgotten.

The man has every right to want something different, to fulfil his lifelong dream of winning something, anything.

And yet some believe he shouldn’t be Tottenham’s next captain.

If he stays, willingly or otherwise, Kane will be Tottenham’s next captain. How could anyone strip him of that right, a role he’s deserved since I can recall.

Imagine Ange telling Kane he’s not the captain of Tottenham. It’s as insulting as it is farcical. If Tottenham has any chance of convincing Kane to sign an extension and finish his career as a one-club man, overlooking him for the captaincy isn’t the best place to start.

The thought alone makes me cringe. England’s captain, a man who has made immeasurable and countless sacrifices to remain loyal, something rarely seen in modern football.

Despite all the malarky and ineptitude of the higher-ups he’s had to cope with over the years, Kane has remained steadfast, a consummate professional, almost unerringly.

People will point to him wanting out in 2021 as a time when he acted unprofessionally. The worst moment of Kane’s Tottenham career was when he told everyone, via an interview with Gary Neville, that he wanted to explore other options.

And while not the best way to go about things, Kane has otherwise conducted himself in an upstanding way, beyond reproach.

Who can blame Kane for seeking success, for having a morsel of ambition? It’s not like he hasn’t given Tottenham a fair shake. Over 10 years and two finals, the most recent of which doesn’t exactly scream prestige.

I’ve supported Tottenham my entire life. And Kane deserves better; much better.

If he stays, even if it’s against his will, Kane will be Tottenham’s next captain, irrefutably, for Kane is one of our own, a fact we dare not ignore or forget.

Not now when the going gets tough.

The going has been tough for Kane before, and he never absconded, never deserted our club. It’s high time we returned the favour.