Burnley vs. Tottenham: Maybe Harry Kane should have put his contract talks on hold

If anyone should have put their contract talks on hold this season it was Harry Kane.

AS EVER, we want it both ways.

Soon after Harry Kane headed his debut goal for England last week the calls went up for the media not to build up the boy wonder to knock him down.

Fair enough. No issue with that. Except, with social media now we are all publishers. The sheer volume of opinion on, for example, Twitter means the internet often creates the hype around players far more quickly than the papers.

Not only that, we barely got past the weekend before the questions emerged: Should Manchester United be looking at Harry Kane? Can he really achieve his ambitions at White Hart Lane?

Is he the kind of young striker (completely ignoring their own, promising, James Wilson) that United should be looking at? Could Tottenham face a fight to keep him? 

One pundit even suggested Kane is worth £100million. A view that was nowhere near any of the papers.

What can you do? 

First things first, it goes without saying that Kane is not a £100million player. He is not even a £50million player. Right now he is an exciting talent who, with the right attitude and support, can be anything he wants to be.

Secondly, having interviewed Kane before – and during – this dream season, it is clear to see that he is a man besotted with Spurs who are, in turn, going places under Mauricio Pochettino. 

The north Londoners finally have a coach not only able to fuse the sum of the parts effectively but is also able to provide a pathway for the club’s young talent to the first team on a regular basis.

Having received the green light for their new £400million, 56,000-seater stadium, Tottenham are also poised to push ahead with their plans to make more of a challenge to the Premier League’s elite.

Quite apart from all that, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has done well to tie his unlikely hero down to a new deal as early as he did back in January.

Because, never mind Raheem Sterling or Theo Walcott, if anyone should have put their contract talks on hold this season it was Harry Kane.

It is all the rage right now. Wanting to “focus on your football” instead of talking turkey. Stalling until the summer when the cards have to be put on the table. To be fair it is understandable too.

But Kane committed himself to a five and a half-year deal worth around £45,000-a-week and carried on regardless.

The feeling within the game is that, for a young player, the ps that his people settled on are more than enough. Play your football and further rewards will come.

As everyone knows, however, it isn’t quite as simple as that.  And there will be more than a few people willing to make the England striker aware of it. 

The new £5billion deal and the cash already dished out to lesser-performing players means that if you can deliver on the pitch the world is your oyster. 

It is also part of the reason why a bitter, well-documented PR war is being fought between Liverpool and Raheem Sterling’s advisers.

But back to Kane. By the end of November he had scored 11 goals. By the end of December that had risen to 15. It would have been interesting if at that point, fancying himself to bag a few more, he’d said to Spurs: ‘Hang on, let’s do this in a few months’ time.’

Particularly as the cynics suggested he couldn’t keep it up or do it against the bigger teams. In January he went on to destroy Chelsea. 

Since his new deal was announced he has seen off West Brom, Arsenal, scored against Liverpool, crushed QPR and left Leicester rooted to the bottom of the Premier League.

His debut goal for England against Lithuania last week was his 35th in all competitions this season, including his goals for the Under-21’s. 

He may not have scored against Italy on Tuesday night but he was far from out of place alongside Wayne Rooney with Ross Barkley rampaging in behind them.

Had he waited until May to sort his deal out, Kane could have given Spurs a real problem. They probably will have to have another look at his contract next season but right now there are no current plans to do so. 

It is worth noting more of those heroics though. Kane has played a huge part in keeping Tottenham in the hunt for the top four with £26million Roberto Soldado an utter disaster and Emmanuel Adebayor frozen out.

In fact, this season Kane has outscored the likes of Diego Costa, Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez, Andy Carroll and Wayne Rooney – all of whom earn more than double (in Rooney’s case five times) his salary. 

To be fair to Spurs, they will argue that the money their academy star is on is far in excess of the cash he started the season with. 

They could also, justifiably, cite the examples of several players whose hunger deserted them as soon as they were handed huge contracts. 

What they won’t dispute is the fact that Kane is worth it. He has been tipped to win the Player of the Year award. 

He is a success story in a season where there has been a good deal for English football not to be proud of. 

Of course we should all shout about that.