Harry Kane has a point to prove and will want to show Man City they should try and sign him again this summer
WHEN players have a point to prove and feel they have been slighted, they always seem to get that extra spring in their step.
Tottenham’s Harry Kane will be no different when he faces Manchester City — the club he almost joined last summer.
You may think that Harry will be going to the Etihad with feelings of what-ifs and envy, but it will be the opposite.
He will be thinking, ‘Hold on, you passed up on me — let me show you exactly what you passed up on’.
You see it all the time, with players meeting their old clubs, famously when Emmanuel Adebayor played for City against Arsenal, scoring THAT goal and doing THAT celebration.
Will there be a part of Harry thinking he would love to play in this team as he would get loads of chances and score loads of goals? Of course.
However, he is in a situation now where he is a year older, a year wiser, he is getting back to the form that we know he can be in, and he will want to prove he is still that Harry Kane.
And he isn’t the only one. Raheem Sterling not long ago was in the conversation about being offered to Tottenham as a makeweight. He will want to show he is still the main man, too.
Most read in Football
BETTING SPECIAL - GET KHAN AT HUGE 40/1 OR BROOK AT 30/1 FOR BOXING SHOWDOWN
When he is fully focused and on it, Kane is the closest thing we have seen to Alan Shearer. He is a goal machine. If you give him chances he scores.
But everyone also knows how good City are. Kane knows it, for sure.
Kane will have limited chances to show how good he is at the Etihad in a Spurs shirt. Just look how bad Antonio Conte’s side have been recently.
But Kane will want to prove people wrong.
He will also want to get back in that conversation of being one of the world’s best strikers because things are going to start moving.
By that, I mean this summer will kick-off a merry-go-round of strikers changing clubs. It is now the year of the striker.
City still haven’t got a striker in. Manchester United are in the same boat. Real Madrid and Barcelona are looking to get back on top. Even Arsenal are hoping to break back in.
In England, the two big names are Kane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
People definitely jumped the gun by saying last summer was Harry’s only chance to move, as he turns 29 in July, but that is always the way.
They try to do this age profile. That only works if you’re not very good.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still playing and getting moves and he is 40.
Apparently if you’re close to 30 you get put in a wheelchair and rolled home and told you’ve got to go sit in a corner.
It’s a shame because you see someone like Jamie Vardy who had his best years from 30 onwards. No one questions Vardy because of his pace.
And when you’re as good as Kane is, nobody should mention your age.
There are younger versions, like Kylian Mbappe, whose likely move away from PSG in a few months could trigger a whole host of transfers. But when you’re younger, you’re not tried and tested. You sign Harry Kane, it comes with goals.
Those buying young are in the rebuild phase.
But City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea, haven’t got time to wait three years.
For what it’s worth, here’s what I think will happen: Mauricio Pochettino will leave PSG and go to Manchester United, as will Kane.
Zinedine Zidane will go to PSG, along with Paul Pogba. Mbappe will go to Real Madrid.
And then, it will be up to Conte to rebuild Spurs wisely using money from Kane’s sale.
When I heard the interview he did with Italian media, I didn’t disagree with anything he said. He has told people to stop expecting more.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
He is saying, ‘Calm down, we are not at that level’.
But one thing is for sure, Tottenham will need Conte if they are aiming to rebuild at the speed they want and need to.
⚽ Read our Football News Live blog for breaking news, transfer gossip and must-read stories