Former Tottenham Head of Academy Recruitment Richard Allen has shed light on bringing Harry Kane into the club’s academy, revealing that some at Arsenal were not happy to see the striker go.
Kane is Tottenham’s biggest modern-day legend, having scored more goals for the club than any player in history.
His legacy will always live on at the Tottenham Hotspur and he will always be associated with the Lilywhites, no matter what he goes on to achieve at Bayern Munich or elsewhere.
However, history could have been so different as the striker was first part of Arsenal’s academy as a youngster before he was let go by the Gunners.
Spurs picked him after their North London rivals let him go, with Kane going on to progress through the age group ranks at the club before breaking into the first-team.
Allen revealed that Tottenham had followed the striker for a long time before they signed and explained how his pathway to the first-team was far from straightforward.
Speaking about Kane, he told Project Footballer: “I do generally believe, more often than not, a player signs for the scout rather than the club. Okay, in that case, he didn’t, he went to Arsenal, but the relationship was still there with the scout and the father, so as soon as he was released, he was in.
“We also had a phone call from somebody – I won’t say who – at Arsenal saying ‘we just released Harry Kane… I’m not sure, I think we may have made a mistake on this one, I wanted to keep him’. If you look at Harry Kane’s journey, he struggled every single year.
“Every other year, he was on for a release and it was like ‘no, benefit of the doubt, keep him a bit longer, keep him a big longer’. Really, all the way through… his loans weren’t particularly great, he had a decent one at Millwall for a season and at the back end of it, he wasn’t even getting on the pitch.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Hardly anyone at Tottenham thought Kane would make it as a first-team player until he turned 21. In fact, the striker was never the best player in his age group.
It is his mentality and his work ethic that helped him evolve into the player he became. His story serves as a great lesson to young players.
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