Staff Reporter
While injuries have provided speed bumps throughout his ravenous goalscoring career, Harry Kane is already being ranked among the best English strikers ever to grace the game. Still only 27-years-old, Tottenham Hotspurs’ star forward continues to pad his resume, scoring six goals and setting up eight more through just his first seven games of this Premier League season.
His lightning start to the campaign has had fans, critics, and Spurs players swooning, with the latest to hail ‘King Kane’ being one of his newest teammates, Joe Hart. Signing for Tottenham over the summer as a free agent, the 75-cap former England goalkeeper has said that the Londoner is all-but faultless.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Hart stated: “I struggle to find a fault with Harry. He is absolutely brilliant. Every single pass, every single shot, every single decision.”
It’s lofty praise indeed, and while Kane is the undisputed number-one striker for the national team right now, are there any younger players looking to break in a usurp the Spurs frontman?
Kane’s success may hinge on team success
While Kane’s talent is irrefutable, with his scoring continually pulling him closer and close to all-time great status, domestic success is often key to England’s involvement. Admittedly, this has been slightly less of an influencing factor under Gareth Southgate, but many bosses start their team selection at the top of the Premier League and then work their way down.
Greatly helped by Kane’s goalscoring, Spurs have achieved a top-four finish in four of their last five seasons, with the previous season being disjointed due to a managerial switch. Kane has been the club’s top scorer in each of the last six seasons, and in 2020/21, in the Betsson Premier League odds, not only are Tottenham poised to get into the top-four at 1.80, but Kane is in the running to finish as the league top scorer at 5.00.
As long as he keeps scoring, Spurs will continually be knocking around near the top of the league. That said, his two potential foes for the national team starting job are also playing for high-flying teams.
Is there anyone better than Kane?
Seven games into the season, the Premier League looks a mess. Liverpool top the league with five wins, one draw, and a loss, Manchester City are down in tenth, and Manchester United are sitting in 15th. Spurs are on uneasy ground in 3rd, with just one win between the North London club and 11th-placed Newcastle United. Notably here, around Spurs, Everton trail by just one point, with Chelsea two behind.
Even though Kane has been doing it all in front of the goal, the story of the season has been 23-year-old Dominic Calvert-Lewin. This season, he’s been so good for Everton that he earned an England call-up, scoring on his debut. In the league, seven games in, the Sheffield striker had eight goals, surpassing Kane by two. The other striker in the England ranks is Tammy Abraham. He was superb last season, scoring 13 goals in his 25 games before the break. However, the 23-year-old has been forced to ride the bench for much of the 2020/21 campaign so far.
Calvert-Lewin and Abraham combine for six games and two goals for England. They both have plenty of time to work their way into the mind of future England managers, but Kane has several years left in his career. Having only just entered his physical prime, Kane boasts 32 goals in 48 games, making his debut at 21-years-old in 2015. The only factor which may end up easing Kane out of the England spotlight is his injury troubles.
When he’s fit, however, Kane has proven that he is nearly flawless. For as long as he’s firing them in for Spurs, it seems very unlikely that anyone will be able to pip The Hurri-Kane’s national team place.
