Good article from The Times.
HENRY WINTER | FOOTBALL
Forget stopgap Stellini, selfless Kane is the real leader at Spurs now
The No 10 is no Churchillian orator but it will take his goals, guile and inspirational deeds to carry the club back into the Champions League
Tuesday March 28 2023
Much in football, as in life, is about leadership, about inspiration. Who stirs you most to give your all? To steer them out of their latest shambles, Tottenham Hotspur need a leader. But who?
Joe Lewis is on a boat while the club he owns is all at sea. The chairman, Daniel Levy, is not naturally a leader; a good businessman, undoubtedly, super-intelligent, but an introvert scared of the limelight and nobody’s idea of a galvanising guide for suffering supporters and staff in troubled times. Which is what Spurs urgently need. The board has the power, but not the authority.
Many good, conscientious people work tirelessly behind the scenes at Spurs, individuals respected within footballing circles, particularly Premier League gatherings, who love the club deeply and who deserve better leadership. So who can stand up to be counted at Spurs, a great club with loyal staff and a huge, passionate, frustrated fanbase?
On and off the field, football at its most stressful becomes a narrative about those who wilt and those who take responsibility. So who? Antonio Conte, an increasingly toxic, divisive figure as head coach, departed on Sunday in a trail of cordite and recriminations. He’s gone forth when all Spurs wanted was fourth. The Italian is more a fighter than a leader, as adept at picking arguments as he is at picking line-ups, not a diplomat but unquestionably a winner.
Conte’s important critique of Tottenham’s culture as daring dreamily rather than doing determinedly was lost amid the smoke of his explosive farewell press conference at St Mary’s Stadium. If Levy is as shrewd as his CV suggests, he will heed Conte’s counsel, however corrosive.
At some point it must be recognised that Spurs’ underachievement is not the fault of Conte, or José Mourinho, one of his predecessors, amassers of 34 trophies between them. The pair have won four English titles in the past 18 years — Spurs have not won one in 62 years. The problem just may not be Conte or Mourinho. Just a thought.
So now where are Spurs? Who is leading them after these serial winners? The acting head coach, Cristian Stellini, and his assistant, Ryan Mason, are No 2s, popular with the players but short-term appointments, inexpensive, unproven — and what about Stellini’s loyalty to Conte? Fabio Paratici, the sporting director, has distracting issues from his time at Juventus to address. So who?
Step forward Harry Kane, a leader in deed if not by word. Spurs’ hopes for fighting back, for nailing down that final Champions League spot that may give them a chance in the summer of luring an A-list head coach, such as Julian Nagelsmann, revolve around their No 10.
Stellini and Mason are good people, able football men, but hardly elite tacticians. Spurs are fourth and vulnerable. If Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion win their games in hand, they’re above Spurs. If Liverpool maximise their spare match, they’re within a point of Spurs, and boast a vastly superior manager in Jürgen Klopp. Ambushes await. Spurs must be ready.
Their internationals, including Kane, report back on Tuesday, resuming club duties and preparing for Monday’s tricky trip to a glowering Goodison Park. Spurs’ hope for sustained involvement with fourth stems from the dressing room, not the boardroom or coaches’ room. Kane is key.
As leaders go, Kane is no Winston Churchill. He’s no king of the rallying cry, certainly not the type to go full Gladiator and play “commander of the armies of the North 17”, but Kane leads by example, by his selfless work out of possession, chasing lost balls, lost causes. He’s an inspiration by expansive deed, not any perceived limited vocabulary. Not every leader is a shouter. He has never let down the fans.
Levy needs to remember the fans, the people who pay his wages, who keep Spurs going. They keep turning up despite the lack of leadership from on high. Twice in the past month I’ve made the schlep up from Seven Sisters Tube station to the magnificent stadium, and back post-match, and as well as an exercise that stretches the legs it also expands the mind.
Conversations were insightful with Spurs supporters en route, despite losing some who were distracted by hostelries, including the High Cross, Elbow Room, Beehive, Bluecoats, No 8 and Corner Pin on the way up Tottenham High Road — and those were just the ones on the right, let alone the kebab shops.
The #LevyOut campaigners surfaced at times, a group adept at man-marking. What their presence and persistence confirmed was how much they cared for Spurs, how desperate they were for proper leadership, a point powerfully echoed by the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust.
It is a stain and a shame on the rule of Levy that the most thoughtful observations on the departure of Conte should come not from him, somebody who appointed him, knew him, then sacked him, but from the trust. Here was confirmation of Levy’s lack of leadership qualities. It was the trust, the fans, the true voice of the club, who expressed gratitude to Conte for some of his work, and plenty of empathy for his personal travails after the loss of several friends and distance from family.
The trust also noted its awareness that “many supporters had grown tired of the football associated with the manager”. Conteball was negative, against the attacking ethos of the club of Jimmy Greaves, Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne and now Kane. The trust called Conte out. And now he was out, and few mourned.
While executives hid, the trust opened up a debate. “The club’s board must now have a clear strategy for what and who comes next,” it urged, “and it needs to tell this club’s supporters what that plan is.” That’s not simple courtesy, that’s sensible business practice. Just communicate. Not a strength of Levy’s.
So if the leadership is lacking from on high, then others have to take charge, and that has to be Kane. England and Spurs’ record scorer stands on the edge of history again. Kane has reported for duty on 427 occasions for Spurs, and constantly delivered, but the remaining ten games of this season could prove the most important for his legacy.
At 29, Kane may well leave in the summer, finally acknowledging the inhibiting culture at Spurs and pursuing silverware elsewhere, but, if so, if he is to move on from the club that made him, and whose supporters so love him, then let it be on an upbeat note.
Of course, if Kane drove Spurs with his goals, guile and inspiring example back into the Champions League, then he may be more likely to stay. Whatever, Spurs fans would respect his final contribution if he did then head off.
Kane is a friend of Mason, a former team-mate who is only two years his senior, but this is not about sitting in the coaches’ room discussing tactics. That would not be Kane’s style, and he is too instinctively respectful of management. This is more about Kane setting the tone, whether on the field by leading the press and the line, or off the field by inspiring staff in training-ground chats or in talks with the media.
With respect to Stellini and Mason, they are not considered stellar guardians of the flickering flame of Spurs’ ambition. Tottenham need a real leader, a focal point. What Kane may lack in eloquence, he exudes in substance. He’s Tottenham’s real leader.
