Former Tottenham head coach, Tim Sherwood, has claimed that the North Londoners were considering selling Harry Kane before he decided to intervene.
Kane made his debut for Spurs under Harry Redknapp but it was not until Tim Sherwood replaced Andre Villas-Boas at the helm in the latter part of the 2013-14 season that the striker got a run of games in the Premier League.
The former Spurs boss insisted that the club weren’t convinced about Kane’s ability due to the fact that he had been ineffective during his loan spells.
Speaking on the Squeaky Bum Time podcast (as relayed by the Express), he said: “I don’t think Harry Kane would be at Tottenham if I wasn’t there as manager.
“They were looking to offload Harry Kane, perhaps because he’d been out on a few loans.
“I viewed it as a development process, a games programme which was better than the one he was being offered in under-21 football, I thought it was the best thing for him.
“And there were a lot of people around the club at the time maybe suggesting that he wasn’t going to be a player of Premier League quality.”
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Sherwood insisted that it was Kane’s mentality that helped him evolve into one of the best strikers in the world, rather than just his ability.
When asked what separated the Spurs striker from the rest he said: “Character, mindset, mentality is huge.
“People talk to me about ability and I always believe if your ability is there but your mindset and your character is [more], then you’ve got a chance.
“If it’s the other way around, if your mind and mentality is there and your ability is [higher], you won’t make it.
“If you can marry the two up, I think that’s what Harry had to his advantage.
“Every single day coming to training and wanting to improve himself and I knew he had the capabilities.
“Physically he was growing, he was getting stronger, he was getting fitter, he was still a boy when I gave him the opportunity to play. So he came in at the right time.”
The former Tottenham boss also recalled how Kane was consistently outperforming Roberto Soldado in training, thus leaving him with no choice but to give him an opportunity.
Sherwood added: “I threw caution to the wind, we had Roberto Soldado there who the club had played big money for of an ageing player who’d scored a lot of goals, a great lad, a lot of goals in Spanish football, but he just couldn’t hack it, it wasn’t happening for him in the Premier League.
“I gave him three or four games to try and prove himself – every single day on the training field Harry Kane was outperforming him.
“So it wasn’t a decision based upon ‘well I’ve come from the development side, I’m going to give this kid an opportunity’ – he deserved the opportunity.
“I gave him the chance and the rest is history.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Sherwood certainly never gets tired of blowing his own trumpet despite his managerial career being a colossal failure. However, he does have a point with regards to Kane as I am not sure the striker would have stayed at Tottenham when Pochettino arrived if Sherwood hadn’t given him the opportunities to showcase his talent.
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