Harry Kane Tottenham treble helps to exorcise lows of Leicester loan

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/22/harry-kane-tottenham-leicester

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Harry Kane struggled to get a game for Nigel Pearson at Leicester City in the Championship not so very long ago. On loan from Tottenham Hotspur for the final three months of the 2012-13 season, the striker started in his first five matches, then lost his place and was on the bench thereafter. He scored two goals in 15 appearances.

Kane’s spell at Leicester ended with an utterly crushing defeat. A 61st-minute substitute in the play-off semi-final, second-leg at Watford, he held his breath as Anthony Knockaert addressed a penalty in the seventh minute of stoppage time to take Leicester to Wembley. The kick was saved by Manuel Almunia and Watford went straight up to the other end to plunder the winner through Troy Deeney. It was the sort of result that stays with you.

Look at Kane now. The 21-year-old can do no wrong and even the miscues are flying in, such as the second goal of his hat-trick that served to deepen Leicester’s relegation worries on Saturday. The shot had seemed to be heading wide of the near post before it deflected sharply off Robert Huth and looped into the far corner.

Kane faces a wait to see whether the Dubious Goals Panel will chalk that one from his season’s tally, which stands at 29 in all competitions but that is pretty much the extent of his worries.

He can look forward to an England debut against Lithuania in the Euro 2016 qualifier at Wembley on Friday night, having been called up to the senior squad by Roy Hodgson for the first time and he is playing with such drive and infectious enthusiasm that nobody would bet against him commandeering another swathe of headlines.

His confidence is sky-high and the many plaudits are feeding him further. There was plenty to talk about from this wacky encounter at White Hart Lane, not least the soft penalty that turned matters back in Tottenham’s favour, gave Kane his first Premier League hat-trick and sent Pearson into his latest latently hostile fug. But Kane transcended everything.

This was not about Kane proving any sort of point to Pearson; rather the latest illustration of his breakneck progress. “I don’t suppose that anybody at that point [when Kane was on loan at Leicester] would have seen the sort of rise that he’s had,” Pearson said, and nobody could fault his assessment.

It is worth remembering that Kane did not start a league fixture this season until 9 November; he is now the competition’s joint-top scorer with 19 goals. He is carrying Tottenham’s Champions League hopes.

“He was two years younger when he was with us and you’ve got to put it into context,” Pearson added. “We were not on the best run and it’s never easy for a young player on loan to come into a side that is not on the top of their game and have the impact that you would probably want. It was difficult for him to show exactly what he could do. But you could see that he was very good technically and a very good lad as well.”

Pearson was a snapshot in pent-up aggression and it was easy to think that the wrong question might tip him over the edge. He spoke in measured tones and said that he needed to choose his words carefully although, by then, he had called the referee, Mike Dean, “one of the most arrogant men I’ve ever met”.

Tottenham lost the goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, to a badly gashed knee in the first minute – he will miss France’s upcoming internationals with Brazil and Denmark – and Leicester made frequent attacking in-roads. This Tottenham defence remains a work in progress.

Leicester had deservedly equalised through the captain, Wes Morgan, and they were on top when Dean ruled that the contact between David Nugent and the Tottenham full-back, Danny Rose, added up to a penalty.

“Rose has come from behind me, kicked the back of my leg and fallen over,” Nugent said. “We all know it wasn’t a penalty. Things like that have gone against us all season.”

Man of the Match Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)