Harry Kane: Get busy living or get busy dying
Back in 2011 on a podcast with Bill Simmons…
Charles Barkley mentioned a list that was brought up every NBA postseason; ‘The greatest players never to win an NBA title.’
Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Steve Nash and a few others, all names Barkley learned to dread, every time they were grouped together. Although it was woefully unfair, he took it as a compliment, because all the names in the list were great, or that’s what he told himself to cope.
Football is very different from the NBA.
In the NBA, there is only one title to aim for, and nothing can compensate for not having an NBA championship ring.
In football however, each player gets an opportunity to aim for three to four trophies a season, and the international tournaments are massive competitions people actually care about, unlike in basketball.
Even though Steven Gerrard never won the Premier League, he at least won other trophies like the Champions League, a couple of FA Cups and League Cups. Great players in football almost never go through their career without winning a major trophy. So, this is where we come to Harry Kane.
So Close, yet so Far
On July 11th 2021, Kane came the closest he has ever come to lifting a major trophy.
He was a penalty shootout away from winning the Euros with England, but it was not meant to be. He remains trophyless, with either club or country.
He has now played in three major finals, losing all three, and he also lost the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018. He is 27 years old right now, ironically the exact same age Sol Campbell was, when he decided to leave Tottenham for Arsenal, in search of trophies.
Even though it is very unlikely that Kane will follow the path Campbell did, and join Arsenal, he is very much in a similar situation. With only a few years of his prime remaining, he needs to choose whether he believes he could still win something at Tottenham, or he needs to move to another club to get his hands on a trophy.
Harry Kane is unquestionably one of the greatest strikers to play in the Premier League.
He is 27 years old at the time of writing and already has over 240 PL appearances, scoring 166 goals.
He’s on course to beat Alan Shearer’s record of 260 PL goals, and it would be hard to find anyone who believes he cannot do it if he stays in the Premier League for the next 4-5 seasons. He has won multiple individual awards, three PL golden boots, the golden boot at the 2018 World Cup, PFA player of the season and fans player of the year, and many more. Records, golden boots and other acclamations are all great, but none of these can ever fill a trophy shaped hole.
Tottenham are going through quite a tough phase at the moment.
They have been on a downward slope since reaching the Champions League final in 2019.
They fired one of the greatest managers of the 21st century a week before a major final earlier this year, which they went on to lose, and have now hired a manager who seemed to be their tenth or eleventh choice for the position.
Nuno Espirito Santo should be given a lot of credit for what he achieved with Wolves in the Premier League over the last two seasons. However, he has never won a major trophy, nor has managed a really top side in his career.
Tottenham also need to make quite a few changes to their squad, which is either aging, or not good enough to challenge for trophies. They are not in the Champions League for next season and it is going to take a mighty effort for them to even challenge for the top four in the PL.
Kane might look at this and think, he doesn’t have the time to wait for Tottenham to build and start competing again.
So, if he wants a move, where could the best destination be?
Where next for Harry Kane?
Clubs like Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid are very attractive destinations, and it is almost certain that he will win a trophy if he moves to one of these big-name clubs abroad. However, Kane is chasing Alan Shearer’s record, his playing style suits the premier league and being English, he would want to leave a legacy in the English game and be considered a PL legend.
Given everything about his price, stature, finances involved and the state of premier league clubs at the moment, there seems to be only one realistic destination for Kane, which is Manchester City.
City are in need of a striker, after the departure of Sergio Aguero and have the financial power to pay for the services of Kane, even though they just spent £100 million on Jack Grealish. The fact that he will get to play under Pep Guardiola and alongside the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and other world class players, Manchester will certainly be a very attractive destination.
They have a squad to consistently challenge for the PL and the Champions League year after year. With clubs like Manchester United spending big money on Jadon Sancho, and Chelsea having just spent £200 million the previous summer window, City seem like the only viable option for the trophy starved Kane.
For Kane to be considered one of the greatest ever in the Premier League, an FA Cup or a League Cup alone won’t do. He needs to win the Premier League or the Champions League, which his talent deserves.
He needs to avoid the premier league equivalent of the list which Charles Barkley is a part of and dreads. Like Andy Dufresne in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, Harry Kane has come to a point in his career where he has a simple choice to make, get busy living or get busy dying. Some birds aren’t meant to be caged; Kane’s feathers are too bright. He’s got to decide, whether he wants to stay in his trophyless prison or get out and drive down to his Zihuatanejo.
This summer window is going to be crucial in Kane’s career. Let’s just say, we will see whether Harry Kane crawls out of 500 yards of foul-smelling sewage, the likes of which we cannot imagine, and come out clean on the other side.