Çhat is the perfect way to Harry Kane to become Tottenham’s record goalscorer? It has to be a penalty, against Arsenal, in stoppage time, to win the North London derby on Sunday. A penalty he won for ‘being smart’. There was contact when Gabriel Magalhães nudged him lightly in the back. He had every right to fall.
Craig Pawson is surrounded, forced into that impossible position of trying to appear authoritative while tiptoeing backwards to escape Granit Xhaka screaming in his face. By this time, William Saliba had taken a trowel to the penalty spot. Paul Tierney looks at his monitor at Stockley Park. Check full. Peter Walton sits at his locker agreeing it was the right decision. AFTV implodes.
Thank goodness Emi Martínez left Arsenal nearly two and a half years ago or it would be another 25 minutes before Kane steadies himself, takes a few steps back, stutters, runs and hits the ball into Aaron Ramsdale’s outstretched right hand. The net ripples. Martin Tyler has something perfect ready to go. Peter Drury screams “Cosmic Chasmic Kane” to the international audience.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium erupts. It’s 2-1. Two goals for Kane, who exorcised the ghosts of qatardented their rivals’ title ambitions, sent Spurs into the top four and overtook Jimmy Greaves as the club’s top scorer.
A less biased forecaster might suggest that the above is bullish at best. Arsenal are playing with a joyous fluidity that Spurs fans can only dream of at the moment. Regardless of how this season plays out, Mikel Arteta proved many wrong. Credit to those who trusted the process, who kept the faith during their tribute to the Blair Witch lamp – not me.
When the only criticism is that you bounce around a little too much (unlike Klopp… no; Pep… no; Count, Simeone – you get the point), you’re probably winning. Five points clear at the top of the Premier League, but a manager who doesn’t treat the dotted lines of the technical area like an electric fence seems like a reasonable trade-off.
Even if Kane fails to do that on Sunday, he will soon break Greaves’ record of 266 in 379 games. It scored 265 out of 412. Intergenerational comparisons aren’t necessarily that helpful. The world of football tried again to define Pelé’s place in the pantheon of greats, despite having barely seen him play.
To me, Greaves was one half of a great TV duo, but to those who saw him live, he was something else. “The great Jimmy Greaves. I’ve never seen anyone with that much speed outside the blocks.” So says David Rushden, who watched him from the terraces of White Hart Lane as a young man in the 1960s. “He was never approached. He went on muddy fields with a muddy ball and everyone was muddy but his shorts were always clean.
“He only had an eye for goal. It was unbelievable the goals he scored out of nowhere. He’s my favorite.” Thanks Dad.
Anyone who’s watched the excellent Greavsie documentary or who’s been down on YouTube about the Spurs of the 60’s will probably conclude that Greaves is the most natural football player. Hundreds of side finishes. Dribbling with grace, grace and poise, settling the keeper with a mere shimmy before rolling into goal.
It is an oversimplification to say that football is innate for some (Messi) while others have to work at it (Ronaldo). All these players are ridiculously good, they all train every day. But there’s no questioning the obsessive work Kane has put in to reach elite levels.
He’s also deceptively good. Even after all these years of watching him, he’s faster, more skilled, more subtle than many believe. That touch and hit at Crystal Palace the past week symbolizes its completion. We now recognize that he is a creator where Greaves was not, dropping into his pockets and turning the corner for Son Heung-min.
But Kane can frustrate – always going for the killer ball, sometimes slowing the game down in the process. Again, this is where these comparisons fall down. It’s hard to find compilations on YouTube of Greaves’ worst crashes or games he’s gone into.
In a few months, Kane could well become England’s record goalscorer. This summer he turns 30, possibly at the final crossroads of his career. Glue or twist. Gossip columns this transfer window link him to Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. There won’t be many opportunities to move up, Manchester City’s door closed a few months ago.
If football had a soul, there would be at least one moment when Kane could enjoy, rather than endure, walking down the field cheering his fans on, a trophy in one hand and a medal in the other. There were many slow motion montages of him looking sad, processing what could have been just minutes after the final whistle.
Fairly or not, Greaves has been defined – externally at least – by what he hasn’t won and the same could easily happen to the England captain. Even if he leaves Spurs and wins a Bundesliga or two, Kane has done enough to come back and work in rooms with Gary Mabbutt and Ledley King when he hangs up his boots. Maybe it’s time to go out and invest in a closet or at least a shelf.
In a way it would be admirable to stay, that trophy would taste so much sweeter in a Spurs jersey. Champions League this year? Add the euros after that? He can score a winning penalty against France. Unlikely perhaps, but in 2011, when Kane was on loan at Leyton Orient, his record-breaking exploits looked unlikely too. It is good to dream.
Maybe it’s an act of preservation among football fans who support teams that don’t win things to suggest that medals and trophies really don’t matter in the end. It’s much more than that.
Comments
Post a Comment