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Ex-Spurs Player Harry Kane

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I love the fact that his goal that broke the record actually meant something, in the fact it was the winning goal, against the champions and could be the goal that kick starts our season!
Cant imagine how shitty it would have been had we thrown away that lead like we did in the home game!
 
Gilded Lily said:
Interesting to compare Harry with Haaland this season. Haaland may be great at what he does, but on the strength of yesterday, there are serious questions. Is he a one trick pony, who can be taken out of games now teams are starting to get wise to him?

Harry has been racking them up, season after season now, against the best defences in the league who know exactly what he will do, but they simply cannot stop him. They put multiple players on him, foul him and he still finds a way. Harry has an off game, it's generally because his energy or fitness is off, can't think of a time he's genuinely been in another player's pocket. He adapts his game, rarely gets wound up and repeatedly delivers; goals, assists and killer passes.

Shouldn't even be talking about Haaland in the same breath. Well done Harry, nobody does it better. 👏
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Too early to compare but games they have scored in as a comparator fir example?
 
sudoku said:
16 games to go: can he beat Jim's league total this season? :rolleyes:

StartsGoalsGPG
GREAVES3212200.685
KANE2852000.702
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He had a higher average before the ankle breaker against City. Went from a 30 league goals a season striker to just 17.

If Kane was fit throughout, he'd have been the golden boot winner in every season except Salah's record breaker. Since Salah, no one has managed more than 23 goals in a season. It would be a miracle if Kane doesn't score at least 25 this season.
 
prinmemo said:
This happens a lot, actually. Coaches anoint a player as the next big thing only to have him utterly fail. Then they don’t rate players with massive potential. The reasons behind this range from laziness to style preferences to personality clashes.

Another cause is the style of play of the player and the team. A team that goes long ball all game will not a fit a player that is good at quick (1, 2, or 3 touch) passing, because quick passing is not valuable to a team that huffs the ball all game.

Yet another problem is that many coaches fail sideways and sometimes upwards. They make mistakes all the time, but their poor performance is rewarded because of their relationships.

I’d be curious to know where are the wankers that dropped Harry from Woolwich and the coaches at Spurs that didn’t see much in him. They should all be out of professional football. My hunch is a lot of them are still around making the same mistakes.
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You're spot on here.

My Nephew was on Luton's books for 4 years or so, from age of 8. He's an absolutely superb Footballer, has vision and, most importantly, has the work ethic to go with it.
The coach he had for his first 3-4 years told us that if he kept his progression up, he's the next Gareth Bale, and he meant it.
Then that coach left and was replaced by another who's priorities were completely different. My Nephew went through some fairly serious growing pains right after the coach change, as a result he was let go by Luton on this coaches advice.
So 3-4 years of knocking it out of the park, then a coach change, some growing pains, and he's out the door. It was telling where this coaches priorities were, as the players he retained were all big for their age, but not nearly as skilled as my Nephew who, whilst smaller, was regularly the standout player in their team. He was player of the tournament in one of the international tournaments they played in.

These kids have to keep the faith though and just keep putting themselves forward with other teams. Eventually they'll get their break, if they're good enough.

A great example of this is Ian Dowie. I played with him at youth level. I kid you not when I say that I had more talent on my worst day than he did on his best. But I received two knock backs (Soton and Spurs) then quit Football for a year I was so dejected (at the Spurs knock back - I had a blinder in the trial).
Dowie got multiple knock backs from dozens of clubs, until Luton, ironically, gave him his break, putting him on YTS terms, and he worked his Bollox of to make it.

I couldn't stand the bloke when I played with him, he was a horrible c**t at the time as I was the youngster in the team, but I've got a lot of respect for his never give up attitude and his work ethic which, if I'm honest, I lacked in spades.

The moral of the story is work hard and never give up. Had I done so, who knows where I'd have ended up. This is what I tell my Nephew, but it's unnecessary with him, as he knows he's going to face these knock backs regularly. His Dad's done really well with him, he's managed to get an old head on young shoulders with the boy and we have high hopes for him.
 
sudoku said:
1Jimmy Greaves357
2Dixie Dean310
3Steve Bloomer309
4Gordon Hodgson287
5Alan Shearer283
6Charlie Buchan258
7Nat Lofthouse255
7David Jack255
9Joe Bradford248
10Hughie Gallacher247
11Joe Smith243
12George Brown240
13George Camsell235
14Ian Rush232
15David Herd222
16Harry Hampton219
17Tony Cottee214
17Billy Walker214
19Geoff Hurst211
20Wayne Rooney208
20Bobby Gurney208
22Dave Halliday207
23Ronnie Allen206
24Arthur Chandler204
25Denis Law201
25Harry Johnson201
25Andrew Wilson201
28Harry Kane200
28Vic Watson200
28George Elliott200
30Bobby Charlton199
30Bobby Smith199

Harry could be all time top 20 by the end of the season.
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If he keeps up his current pace this season he'll get around 12 more league goals which would put him in 19th on 212 above Rooney and Hurst
 
Ionman34 said:
You're spot on here.

My Nephew was on Luton's books for 4 years or so, from age of 8. He's an absolutely superb Footballer, has vision and, most importantly, has the work ethic to go with it.
The coach he had for his first 3-4 years told us that if he kept his progression up, he's the next Gareth Bale, and he meant it.
Then that coach left and was replaced by another who's priorities were completely different. My Nephew went through some fairly serious growing pains right after the coach change, as a result he was let go by Luton on this coaches advice.
So 3-4 years of knocking it out of the park, then a coach change, some growing pains, and he's out the door. It was telling where this coaches priorities were, as the players he retained were all big for their age, but not nearly as skilled as my Nephew who, whilst smaller, was regularly the standout player in their team. He was player of the tournament in one of the international tournaments they played in.

These kids have to keep the faith though and just keep putting themselves forward with other teams. Eventually they'll get their break, if they're good enough.

A great example of this is Ian Dowie. I played with him at youth level. I kid you not when I say that I had more talent on my worst day than he did on his best. But I received two knock backs (Soton and Spurs) then quit Football for a year I was so dejected (at the Spurs knock back - I had a blinder in the trial).
Dowie got multiple knock backs from dozens of clubs, until Luton, ironically, gave him his break, putting him on YTS terms, and he worked his Bollox of to make it.

I couldn't stand the bloke when I played with him, he was a horrible c**t at the time as I was the youngster in the team, but I've got a lot of respect for his never give up attitude and his work ethic which, if I'm honest, I lacked in spades.

The moral of the story is work hard and never give up. Had I done so, who knows where I'd have ended up. This is what I tell my Nephew, but it's unnecessary with him, as he knows he's going to face these knock backs regularly. His Dad's done really well with him, he's managed to get an old head on young shoulders with the boy and we have high hopes for him.
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It seems like a lottery.

I was a very decent footballer once upon a time. Fast and great at long and short passing, as well as crossing and shooting. I was happy on the wing or deeper in midfield, but my coach just stuck me up front as a striker and I spent 90% of the time waiting to touch the ball. Pretty much killed any potential for a serious football career dead.

Well, that and cannabis.
 
Dr Rocktopus said:
It seems like a lottery.

I was a very decent footballer once upon a time. Fast and great at long and short passing, as well as crossing and shooting. I was happy on the wing or deeper in midfield, but my coach just stuck me up front as a striker and I spent 90% of the time waiting to touch the ball. Pretty much killed any potential for a serious football career dead.

Well, that and cannabis.
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Yeah, I forgot about the cannabis.


Unsurprisingly...
 
Ionman34 said:
You're spot on here.

My Nephew was on Luton's books for 4 years or so, from age of 8. He's an absolutely superb Footballer, has vision and, most importantly, has the work ethic to go with it.
The coach he had for his first 3-4 years told us that if he kept his progression up, he's the next Gareth Bale, and he meant it.
Then that coach left and was replaced by another who's priorities were completely different. My Nephew went through some fairly serious growing pains right after the coach change, as a result he was let go by Luton on this coaches advice.
So 3-4 years of knocking it out of the park, then a coach change, some growing pains, and he's out the door. It was telling where this coaches priorities were, as the players he retained were all big for their age, but not nearly as skilled as my Nephew who, whilst smaller, was regularly the standout player in their team. He was player of the tournament in one of the international tournaments they played in.

These kids have to keep the faith though and just keep putting themselves forward with other teams. Eventually they'll get their break, if they're good enough.

A great example of this is Ian Dowie. I played with him at youth level. I kid you not when I say that I had more talent on my worst day than he did on his best. But I received two knock backs (Soton and Spurs) then quit Football for a year I was so dejected (at the Spurs knock back - I had a blinder in the trial).
Dowie got multiple knock backs from dozens of clubs, until Luton, ironically, gave him his break, putting him on YTS terms, and he worked his Bollox of to make it.

I couldn't stand the bloke when I played with him, he was a horrible c**t at the time as I was the youngster in the team, but I've got a lot of respect for his never give up attitude and his work ethic which, if I'm honest, I lacked in spades.

The moral of the story is work hard and never give up. Had I done so, who knows where I'd have ended up. This is what I tell my Nephew, but it's unnecessary with him, as he knows he's going to face these knock backs regularly. His Dad's done really well with him, he's managed to get an old head on young shoulders with the boy and we have high hopes for him.
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What year was that (Saints)? My mate was a pro there and said Dowie was fucking rubbish, a complete laughing stock technically but could graft and put himself about

A decent coach / club will allow slow progress through growth spurts as kids performances drop off and look clumsy but bounce back in a year (generally if they are good)
 
Zomb said:
What year was that (Saints)? My mate was a pro there and said Dowie was fucking rubbish, a complete laughing stock technically but could graft and put himself about

A decent coach / club will allow slow progress through growth spurts as kids performances drop off and look clumsy but bounce back in a year (generally if they are good)
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God, we're going back a few here, nigh on 40 years ago. Your mate wasn't wrong. You can't fault Dowie for his application though, he made an excellent career out of what little he had.

On your last point, I think there are a number of factors that kids have to overcome to make it, one of those as simple as the coach just not "fancying" that particular player or just not being interested in that particular role on the pitch. They could just be unfortunate enough that there happen to be a number of players for a particular position, and they have to let some go. If your face don't fit, it won't really matter how talented you are, particularly if the other kids have some talent too.

You just have to keep plugging away until your face does fit, it's from then that your application outweighs your talent. If you have both you'll excel.
 
Ionman34 said:
You're spot on here.

My Nephew was on Luton's books for 4 years or so, from age of 8. He's an absolutely superb Footballer, has vision and, most importantly, has the work ethic to go with it.
The coach he had for his first 3-4 years told us that if he kept his progression up, he's the next Gareth Bale, and he meant it.
Then that coach left and was replaced by another who's priorities were completely different. My Nephew went through some fairly serious growing pains right after the coach change, as a result he was let go by Luton on this coaches advice.
So 3-4 years of knocking it out of the park, then a coach change, some growing pains, and he's out the door. It was telling where this coaches priorities were, as the players he retained were all big for their age, but not nearly as skilled as my Nephew who, whilst smaller, was regularly the standout player in their team. He was player of the tournament in one of the international tournaments they played in.

These kids have to keep the faith though and just keep putting themselves forward with other teams. Eventually they'll get their break, if they're good enough.

A great example of this is Ian Dowie. I played with him at youth level. I kid you not when I say that I had more talent on my worst day than he did on his best. But I received two knock backs (Soton and Spurs) then quit Football for a year I was so dejected (at the Spurs knock back - I had a blinder in the trial).
Dowie got multiple knock backs from dozens of clubs, until Luton, ironically, gave him his break, putting him on YTS terms, and he worked his Bollox of to make it.

I couldn't stand the bloke when I played with him, he was a horrible c**t at the time as I was the youngster in the team, but I've got a lot of respect for his never give up attitude and his work ethic which, if I'm honest, I lacked in spades.

The moral of the story is work hard and never give up. Had I done so, who knows where I'd have ended up. This is what I tell my Nephew, but it's unnecessary with him, as he knows he's going to face these knock backs regularly. His Dad's done really well with him, he's managed to get an old head on young shoulders with the boy and we have high hopes for him.
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Your nephew’s story is not uncommon, unfortunately. If he makes it big (which it sounds like he is capable of doing!), I guarantee you the moronic coach that let him go will not be held accountable.

The smaller, younger, and more skillful players unfortunately often have an uphill battle as coaches favor the older and bigger players, because they (1) want to win and (2) mistake size for skill. The relative age effect is real, as players born in the first quarter of the year are picked more often than players born the rest of the year. The players born at the end of the year are at a huge disadvantage.as https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6090398/

Of course, when you’re born has no impact on your talent. It is all preselection by the coaches based on relative size and physical development. Lots of wonderful talents are being pushed out of the sport because of the stupidity of coaches.

I am moving my son (12, born at the end of December!) from his current academy to one that has a playing style that fits his own style. My son has a splendid first touch, outstanding passing skills, vision and intelligence to go along with not being at all selfish. He rarely takes more than three touches to pass or make a decision. He is a good teammate. All in all, he is the most skilled player in the team who also happens to make good decisions on the pitch.

But there is a giant kid on the team that is physically very mature. The team just hoofs the ball long so that this kid takes it and tries to score. If the kid needs to take 50 touches to get in a position to score, he will do so without any issues. This works against mediocre to bad teams, but fails miserably against good teams. His skills are okay, but he looks better than he is because he physically overwhelms most opponents. In three years when the differences in size disappear, this kid is going to suck.

The ironic thing about it is that my son is probably going to end up being bigger than this kid. My wife and I are both significantly taller than his parents. It’s just that my son is basically a year younger and is a late developer (like his mom and I were).

My son is currently being recruited by a couple of clubs that play more of the old Tottenham style (Poch, etc) with nice passing patterns, etc. He will be switching soon.
 
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