Harry Kane opened the scoring in England's rout against North Macedonia. Photo: Shutterstock/Adam Vaughan
Harry Kane at Stretford End. These are the words that Manchester United fans dream of hearing on a regular basis after the striker completed his second best scoring season for club and country.
The fact that Kane scored his 40th goal of the England campaign and Tottenham Hotspur by Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw further whetted the appetite of United fans at Old Trafford on Monday night.
There was time for a 41st penalty goal before he was replaced by Callum Wilson and now that his 64-game season is over, Kane should be fully focused on his future. Does he sit humble and hope that reports of United's ending interest in him due to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy's demands turn out to be a bargaining chip, or is he taking matters into his own hands?
There should really be a lineup of clubs ready to spend the whole summer trying to sign Kane and yet Levy's £100m valuation of his star man, combined with his determination to make life difficult for Premier League rivals, means the genuine interest is not what is needed. should be.
Some of Kane's England teammates believe the 29-year-old is ready for a new challenge, but the market may not budge without him pushing — as he tried to do two years ago.
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Kane is in a stronger position than he was in 2021, when he tried to plan a move to Manchester City, with only one year remaining on his Spurs contract and little sign of him signing extension.
From England. In the long-range starting lineup against North Macedonia, Kane was the only man without a winner's medal, which should be as confusing to his international teammates as it is to non-Spurs fans.
Shaw admitted to building-up to qualifying for the European Championship at Old Trafford that he would take Kane to United «in an instant» even though his club doesn't seem to want a summer battle with Levy.
It wasn't just his goals that impressed the United fans in Manchester. Kane won the ball and started a move that saw Rashford score a third against England at half-time and a perfect pass to Bukayo Saku to complete his hat-trick.
Saka scored a hat-trick 🎩
An incredible game and the second half has just started 😅#C4Football | #ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/EpeUedGjUz
— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) June 19, 2023
There is a perception that any team that has Kane on it has the perfect number 10 as well as one of the most powerful number nines.
Kane will celebrate his 30th birthday next month and the data suggests that it gets better with age. Only once, in 2017/28, did Kane score 41 goals for club and country, and this season the record was reached when Tottenham finished eighth in the Premier League table.
It was the lowest Premier League finish for a club in which a player scored over 25 goals. Blackburn and Sunderland finished seventh, with Alan Shearer scoring 31 and Kevin Phillips 30. Kane is the first player to score over 30 goals in two separate 38-game Premier League seasons.
Considering the fact that he's played in every one of Tottenham's 38 League appearances this season just ended, Kane doesn't have to worry about time working against him if he has to sit out the last year of his Spurs contract.
England manager Gareth Southgate has already encouraged him to emulate former United striker Teddy Sheringham and play at the highest level until he is 40 and there will no doubt be fierce competition between Europe's top clubs to to take Kane on a free transfer this time next year.
With a lack of competition this summer, United may not have a better chance of trying to sign Kane, and having gone down without a fight before then , as we back in July, feel prematurely defeated for a club that plays in this — called the Theater of Dreams.
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