As Spurs fans roused themselves all bleary-eyed and hung-over on Sunday morning, for a split-second they may have thought they were waking up from a beautiful dream. Beating their North London rivals 2-1 at the Lane with a tsunami of verve, passion and no little skill had been a long time coming. The icing on the cake was the match-winning performance of a fearless young goalscorer who had come through the ranks of the Spurs academy. ‘Harry Kane… He’s one of our own’ - so say the Paxton End.
Harry Kane’s rise has been meteoric and like all ‘boy-from-nowhere’ stories, a lot of hard graft, preparation and a good helping of luck have helped the Essex-born likely lad come through. Intriguingly, the 21-year-old striker had a year at Arsenal’s academy when he was eight before finding his way to Tottenham by the time he was 11 and the rest, as they say, is history.
The abundance of highly skilled foreign imports as well as your more mediocre ‘Carlos-Kick-a-Balls’ in the Premier League makes it more tricky for home-grown players to break through. But as my milkman used to say: “the cream will always rise to the top”. Spurs’ boss Pochettino must find himself licking his lips and smiling like a Cheshire cat at various moments during the day, such has been the timing of the ‘Harry-Kane’ whirlwind.
Spurs have skilfully utilised the loan system to nurture their young home-grown talent to fruition, enabling the likes of Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason to pick up experience in lower leagues. Kane himself went on loan to Leyton Orient in League One, Millwall and Leicester City in the Championship and Norwich City in the Premier League. Ironically, it was the much-mocked Tim ’59-per-cent’ Sherwood who gave him his debut in April last year.
Less than 10 months later, Harry Kane is the saviour of the England football team, better the Messi and has the power to make Gooners tremble with fear just on hearing the sound of his name. As Tottenham zoom in on a top-four finish and a place in next season’s Champions League, the Spurs faithful hope the dream never ends.
