England skipper keeps on scoring
It has been quite the season for England and Spurs striker Harry Kane.
In his last Europa League appearance he notched his 200th goal for his boyhood club and then he followed it up with a 150th English Premier League – the decisive goal in a 1-0 win for the North London side over West Bromwich Albion.
That goal put him ninth in the English Premier League’s all-time top scorers, level with Michael Owen, and only the 10th player in the league’s history to reach the 150-goal mark.
That came in just 218 games, with only the league’s all-time top scorer Alan Shearer and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero reaching the mark quicker.
While Kane’s record speaks for itself, the worrying thing for opposition defenders is that he appears to be getting even better this season, his first full campaign under Spurs boss Jose Mourinho. Kane has a remarkable 13 goals and 10 assists this season and it is barely November.
The Portuguese is clearly a fan of the Tottenham talisman, as he told the Spurs official website in midweek.
“When you go to stats in relation to the strikers, I always say that the stats should be… How many goals the striker has scored, and what he did for his team in the matches where he didn’t score. And many of the strikers in history would be an incredible number of goals that they score, plus zero.
Not Kane, Mourinho argues.
“You have to say this number of goals scored, the assists, the balls recovered, the duels won, the balls that he saved his team in a defensive set piece … It’s goals plus this and that. It’s not one more goal or one less goal, it’s about what he is as a player.”
What a player he is.
“Good win and a proud night for me reaching 200 goals,” Kane tweeted after his Europa League goal against Ludogorets.
More to come
He was right, of course, with the first of them coming against West Brom to take Spurs to second in the table. While the manager should be a fan, even his former teammates rate Kane.
“He is the best striker in world football, bar none,” former Spurs winger Andros Townsend told talkSPORT after Kane’s latest record. “He is very under-appreciated,” the Crystal Palace winger and part-time pundit espoused.
“People love to speak about the Lewandowskis and the Benzemas, but if those guys came to the Premier League, they wouldn’t be hitting the numbers Harry Kane’s been hitting on a consistent basis.
“On average he’s scoring 26 goals a season, which is incredible,” Townsend added.
“Knowing Harry Kane, he thinks about that target every single day. Every single time he goes into training, he’s thinking about breaking that all-time goalscoring record because that’s what Harry Kane is like.
“He’s very determined, he’s very focused, and if he sets his mind to something, eventually he will get it.”
The end target that everyone is talking about is Alan Shearer’s English Premier League record of 260 goals.
“If he stays in the Premier League for the next four or five years, 100 percent, I think he will. He’s on course with 110 to go,” Townsend told TalkSport. “If he continues his average of 26 goals every 38 games then he’s only three of four years away.
“Knowing Harry Kane and the way he looks after his body… Yes, he picks up injuries, but his game is not really reliant on pace and I can see him going well into his 30s.”
On the list
Kane not only has the Premier League benchmark and Wayne Rooney’s England record of 49, in his sights, Kane has 32 goals in 49 games for the Three Lions, but the one-club man could well end up Tottenham’s top scorer.
The 27-year-old is third on the list behind Jimmy Greaves on 266 and Bobby Smith on 208. That is something that Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle mentioned after the Ludogorets goal.
“I’m delighted for him,” Hoddle said in his punditry role. “Look at those players, Smith and Jimmy Greaves are only ahead of him.
“I think if he stays at the club I think he could actually catch Jimmy. He’ll be disappointed he didn’t score the earlier chance to get to the 200,” Hoddle ahead, pointing to missed chances before bringing up his double century.
Mourinho is confident.
“The numbers make him a club legend,” Kane’s manager told BT Sport after Kane hit the 200-mark for Spurs. “What he is achieving in the Premier League is great for such a young guy.”
“It is just a question of time,” Mourinho said in reference to becoming the club’s all-time top scorer. “One more month, one less month. It’s just a question of time.”
He only has eight to go to reel in Smith but 66 to go to match Greaves.
Before that Kane has some Premier League legends to overhaul along the way.
One more will take him past Owen, while former Spurs favorite Jermain Defoe is on 162.
England and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler has one more then Thierry Henry is on 175 behind Frank Lampard on 177. There is no reason he cannot reel them in this season – or even Aguero, the only active player on the list on 180, who is struggling for form and fitness.
Kane is not getting carried away, as his teammate Eric Dier suggested after the West Brom win.
“He broke one in midweek and now he has another one,” Dier said. “It won’t affect him too much, he will want another 150.”
Dier might be right.
“Time goes so quick. It feels like just yesterday that I was scoring that first goal for Spurs,” Kane said after the Ludogorets game.
“It’s a great achievement to reach 200 goals but hopefully there’s a few more left … These are all great things, they’re kind of hard to take in while you’re playing. Once you’ve finished your career, you can take them all in.”
At this rate he will have plenty to take in.
