‘A lot of people also talked about tiredness and having a rest after that first season, but I’m a player and I’d play every day if I could. In the summer when I went to the Under-21 Euros it was something I wanted to do for experience. It was the chance to go away in that sort of environment – the hotel life, the training, playing a game every three or four days – so for me it was getting experience for what was hopefully going to follow with England in Euro 2016. Obviously the Under-21 tournament didn’t go as well as we would have wanted, but it was good experience and I never felt tired. I think a lot’s down to the manager and staff at Tottenham, because they’re very good at knowing when the time’s right to have a rest and when to train hard. We’re probably one of the only clubs to do double sessions throughout the season, but the staff and management keep me fresh and healthy. It would take quite a lot to stop me going out and playing. I feel like if I didn’t play because of a little injury I’d be letting people down and letting the team down.
‘I want to play in every game, but obviously if the manager rests me and puts me on the bench he has his reasons. I would never say to him, “Look, I want to be playing.” It’s his decision and I go with it. When I’m on the bench I think about what it was like at Leicester – I’d be on the bench and used to think that if I got the chance to go on I’d have to change the game. You’ve got to have that mentality – to make an impact when you come on and make a difference.’
One of the things I’ve noticed with Harry’s goals is the way a lot of them come because he gets his shots off so quickly. He doesn’t take an extra touch that a lot of strikers do, and because of that defenders – and more particularly, goalkeepers – don’t have a chance to get themselves set. I wondered where he’d got the technique from.
‘That was Defoe,’ he says. ‘He was the best I’ve seen at that in training. He was unbelievable. We’d play little games or five against five, and he’d get the ball, touch and finish! He used to score so many goals by doing it. If defenders closed him down and got tight, he had the ability to skip past them. I think it’s important for a striker, especially in the Premier League, to get shots off early, because defenders will get back in time and block the ball, and keepers these days are so good they’ll see it coming and block it.’
Like all strikers, and despite his all-round team play, Harry lives for goals. His path to the top, and the way he had to persevere and believe in himself, should be an inspiration to youngsters out there who are trying to battle their way through and are suffering some inevitable knockbacks along the way.
‘I hope what happened with me can give younger players that drive and that goal to go and get in the first team,’ he says. ‘Things can change so quickly for you in football, and for me patience is a big thing. There are probably times when you think you should be playing in the first team, but being patient and not letting it get to you is a big part of it. I do see myself as quite an older figure at the club even though I’m still young. But we have a young team and a lot of younger players coming through. You can see times when they get frustrated, when they get left out of squads and things like that. I’ve said to a couple of them, “Just be patient, your time will come, you’ll get your chance. Just be ready.”’
Harry’s connection with the club and with the Tottenham fans is genuine and something that he is happy to have. There is nothing better for a fan than to see one of the club’s youngsters make it all the way to the first team and be successful, because so often over the years that has not been the case and, as I have mentioned, the competition for young English players to make it all the way to the top has never been fiercer. So it’s good to see a success story like Harry’s and it’s fantastic for the Spurs fans to know they are watching ‘one of their own’ who is delighted to be playing for the club.
‘I’ve been at the club so long, since I was eleven years old,’ he says. ‘I’ve been to games – I was a fan watching games before I was a player – and I know what it’s like to be a football fan. I’m a big football fan. I think the fans appreciate the way I work for the team and put in my all every game, and you get that connection with them. Obviously they sing the song about me, and I just try to give something back to them. Fans are a big part of football. If you don’t have fans you don’t have football. So I think it’s important you take time out for them. It’s got to work both ways – they come and support you, and you’ve got to support them as well. You have that connection and that feeling with the fans, where you probably wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. You have that good feeling. Every game they’re singing your name and cheering you on. Why would you want to go and start somewhere else? If you’ve got that connection, that’s what you want in football.’
Having that sort of connection with the fans was something I witnessed first-hand when I was Mark Noble’s manager at West Ham, and it was no surprise that his was the biggest-selling shirt in the club shop. Like Harry Kane, he had to go out on loan and then had the belief and strength of character to say no to another loan in order to battle it out and earn himself a place in the first team. That was when I first came across him as a young player.
‘I’d been out on loan at Hull and at Ipswich,’ he recalls. ‘The manager at the time was Alan Pardew and I was eighteen years old. I went up to Hull and didn’t enjoy it. I did my back in the first training session I had with them. I carried on and played some games for them, but I didn’t enjoy it. The next season I went out on loan to Ipswich and I loved that, and I remember coming in from a training session one day and seeing that West Ham had signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano and thinking, “Where has that come from?” I came back from that loan and went to see Pards in his office. He said, “I’m going to send you out on loan again,” and I said I didn’t want to go. If I’m honest, the team were in trouble and it looked like he was going to get the sack. So I thought, “I don’t want to go on loan for three months, he gets the sack, and then when I come back nobody knows who I am.” So I took a chance and stayed.’
Alan Pardew did get the sack, and I was the man who took over. Mark had played a handful of first-team games before I arrived but wasn’t an established first-team player. He impressed me when I got to West Ham – he was in my face every day, desperate to be in the team, and he trained the way he played, giving everything. I began to play him in the team as we successfully battled against relegation, winning seven of our last nine league matches, and Mark then became an established member of the first team during my time at the club.
‘I always believe the decision I made to say I didn’t want to go out on loan again saved my career at West Ham, for sure,’ he says. ‘That decision was probably the best I’ve ever made and I’ve now played more than 330 games for the club and I hold the record for Premier League appearances for them, as well as having been through some amazing times with them. I think what happens with so many players now is that they haven’t got the self-belief. They go out on loan, and the next minute they’re forgotten about. They might play in the Championship and forget about what it means to be a Premier League player. I think you can go out and you’re happy, but you sort of lose that will to say, “No, I’m going to play in this team.”
‘One of my proudest achievements as a player is that I’ve had five or six different managers during my time at West Ham, all with their different ideas and different ways of playing – and from different cultures – but I’ve started every season in their teams. I know I’m not the greatest player in the world, but I know I’m a good player. I know I’ve got ability, but I know my enthusiasm, hard work and commitment to playing probably outweigh my ability in some ways. I class myself as a good Premier League player who’s played a lot of games and knows what the league is about. When a new manager comes in to the club you have to reinvent yourself in some ways and think about how he wants you to play, and then get on with it. That’s where your mental strength and willingness to learn come in. That’s when you have to impress the manager and say, “Right, I’m going to be in your team.” I think that kind of thing is born in you, having that self-belief, and I’ve always wanted to play for the club.
‘I think it has a lot to