Morata feared competing with Kane at Spurs – Stats show he was right

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Chelsea’s club record signing turned down a move to Tottenham two years ago because of Harry Kane and the stats suggest he was right to do so.

Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he tried to sign Alvaro Morata two years ago but Chelsea’s club record signing did not want to compete with Harry Kane for a place upfront at Tottenham Hotspur.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, Pochettino explained how it can be difficult to attract players to Spurs when they face the prospect of fighting for their place.

Alvaro Morata of Chelsea during the International Champions Cup match against Bayern Munich.

“He said to me: ‘Why do you want me if you have Harry Kane?’,” the Argentine explained. “You know, if you go to try to sign a striker, they will say: ‘Eh gaffer, you want me for what? To be on the bench? I can’t compete with Harry Kane or Hugo Lloris or different players’.”

Morata became the Blues’ most expensive player ever this summer when he joined the West Londoners from Real Madrid in a £60m deal (BBC), but it will please their rivals that the Spaniard did not rate himself more highly than Kane.

Looking at the statistics it is easy to see why. Both players are 24-years-old – although Kane has just had his birthday, while Morata will be 25 in October – so the comparison is even fairer.

Both forwards also broke into the first team at their respective clubs in the summer of 2013, with the Englishman scoring four goals in 19 appearances that first season, while his Spanish counterpart managed nine strikes in 34 games.

Since then Kane has been prolific, finishing second to Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero in the Premier League scoring charts in 2014/15 with 21, before top-scoring the past two years to take his overall league tally to 78 goals in 116 matches. The next time he hits the back of the net for Tottenham it will be the 100th time he has done so.

Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates after scoring a penalty during the International Champions Cup match against Paris Saint-Germain.

In contrast, Morata’s 15 La Liga strikes for Madrid last term was the first time he had scored more than ten league goals in a season after two average years with Juventus. The Spain international may not have had the same sort of first team opportunities at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu as Kane – who scored 29 league goals in 2016/17 – did in North London, but having the potential to score isn’t the same as actually doing it.

Only four players netted more than the England international across Europe’s top five divisions last campaign in Lionel Messi (37), Edinson Cavani (35), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (31) and Robert Lewandowski (30). Kane can be considered genuinely world-class, while Morata still has much to prove.