Kane committed his long-term future to Spurs by signing a new deal on Thursday. Well, he’s one of their own after all.
When you pay almost £30 million on one of the most prolific centre-forwards in the European game, it’s not too much to ask for him to net a few open goals now and again.
Roberto Soldado’s Tottenham Hotspur career will be remembered for spooned sitters and a frozen expression of dejection, but he contributed something far more valuable in the long run. Alongside the former Valencia poacher, Harry Kane evolve from a nomadic loanee to the most complete English centre-forward this side of the millennium.
Around this stage two years ago, the clamour was steadily growing for Mauricio Pochettino to hand the homegrown talent, who had demonstrated his innate scoring touch with regularity in the Europa League, a larger stage to prove his talents. That Kane seized his opportunity with both hands, and either foot, is often portrayed as an individual feat of determination, of a desire to finally make his mark after so many years bouncing around the lower leagues.
But it should not be forgotten that he had help along the way.
Soldado may not have been the most prolific centre-forward, but he was a player reared on technique and close control rather than the power and athleticism demanded by the English game. This made him the perfect foil for a player equally adept at running the channels or dropping short, playing as a ten or a nine.
In games against Hull City and Everton in November 2014, their understanding and link-play was a joy to behold, Soldado’s intelligent movement dragging defenders out of position and opening space for Kane to marauder and smash. In a 2-1 win against The Toffees on the final day of the month, the precocious youngster robbed Gareth Barry of possession before slipping a perfectly weighted pass for Aaron Lennon to tee up Soldado.
That was 2014 Kane in a nutshell. Creative as well as combative, the deft touch and vision of Teddy Sherringham blessed with the poacher’s instinct of Alan Shearer. And one of the most derided players in recent Premier League history helped him hone that skill. Without the intuitive and selfless movement of his Spanish sparring partner, Kane may never have been allowed the space and time to score, again and again.
Furthermore, that ability to weight a pass and link-up effectively owes much to his brief yet critical period as the ten to Soldado’s nine.
He’s learned to lead the line on his own pretty effectively since but, without the profligate, oft-mocked Spaniard, you wonder if he’d be here today, the highest paid player in Tottenham Hotspur’s history.
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