Tony Cascarino has claimed that he feels Tottenham Hotspur hitman Harry Kane isn’t as potent as he once was for club and country.
The Spurs striker captained England to a narrow 1-0 win away to Iceland on Saturday evening but Kane himself didn’t set the game alight, drifting in and out of it for long periods.
The 27-year-old missed a big chunk of last season with a hamstring injury that he picked up in January, but still finished the campaign with 18 Premier League goals – one better than the 2018-19 campaign, 12 worse than the 2017-18 campaign when he bagged 30.
During the 2016-17 campaign, when the Lilywhites challenged for the title, their red-hot marksman finished up with 29 goals.
And failing to breach the 20-goal barrier in each of the past two league seasons, Cascarino has told talkSPORT [broadcast 6am 06/09] that Kane has a ‘big problem’ in the form of recurring hamstring injuries and suggested that he simply isn’t ‘the same player’ that he used to be.
He said: “He’s quite clearly England’s best striker. Is he as good as he was three years ago? No, he’s not. Harry’s had some bad injuries. It’s a big problem. Harry will still continue to get goals, and still be England’s best striker, but I don’t think he’s quite the same player that he was.”
Cascarino is right in saying that his injuries are a concern.
When he got injured last season, Tottenham’s season went belly up as Jose Mourinho’s side suffered FA Cup and Champions League eliminations in quick succession, whilst also falling behind the pack in the race for a top-four finish.
That being said, it’s rather inexcusable if Mourinho doesn’t sign a top-quality goalscorer this summer, in the knowledge that Kane has a chequered injury history.
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