Former Tottenham midfielder Michael Brown believes Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff will try and stop Harry Kane from being involved in cup competitions despite the striker’s willingness to play every match.
Kane has started the season on fire for the Lilywhites as he seems to be thriving in a deeper role.
The 27-year-old already has an astonishing ten goals and eight assists in all competitions so far this campaign.
The striker’s form and Tottenham’s lofty position of second in the Premier League table heading into the international break has some Spurs fans believing that they could mount a challenge for the top flight crown this season given Liverpool’s injury issues and Manchester City’s indifferent start to the campaign.
Fans would certainly be forgiven for putting their money where their mouth is by taking a look over the Online Betting Guide’s list of free bets to check out the best odds they can get for Spurs to end their twelve-year wait for silverware and for Kane to return to the top of the Premier League goalscoring charts.
However, this has been too long a wait for a club of Tottenham’s stature despite having come close in the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League in recent years.
Tottenham’s last taste of success in a competitive tournament came back in 2008 when Juande Ramos’ side beat Chelsea 2-1 in extra time at Wembley in the League Cup courtesy of Jonathan Woodgate’s late header.
Kane was rested by Mourinho recently with new Spurs signing Carlos Vinicius having been handed his debut.
The Brazilian proved that he can be an able deputy for Kane by putting in an impressive display and setting up two of Tottenham’s three goals on the night which left club legend Glenn Hoddle impressed by what he had witnessed.
This was the first time that Kane has been an unused sub for the Lilywhites since their 6-1 Rochdale, 28 Feb 2018.
Brown believes that Kane will be desperate to be involved in every single game and that it is up to Mourinho to persuade him to be on the bench given his hunger to play every game and to score as many goals as he can.
The pundit told Football Insider: “Harry Kane is Harry Kane, we asked last year: ‘Ooh, is he good enough, has he been disappointing since he’s come back?’
“Now it’s like: ‘This is what Harry Kane is’. There’s no question that when he’s been injured at times, he’ll take a little bit of time to get going but now that Spurs side are getting results and doing well, he’s getting fitter and stronger.
“He’s massive for Spurs, Harry Kane. I just think they won’t really want to use him that much but it’s up to the rest of the squad if you need to bring him on. Harry Kane, in any game, will want to come on.
“He’ll want to play and that’s where the management team will be pulling him back with the number of games. It’s one of them, how many times do you start him in the cup competitions?”
Spurs Web Opinion
Given what we know about Kane’s mentality, there is no doubt that he would want to be involved in every game. However, given the injuries that Kane has had over the last few years, one would hope that he realises why he needs to be rested for cup games. Now that we finally seem to have found a centre-forward capable of filling in for him adequately, I do expect Kane to be rested for the majority of the Europa League group stage matches and for him to instead look to fire Spurs back into the Champions League with a top four finish.