Two elite, 28-year-old strikers face-off at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday after a decade of changing fortunesPredator versus predator. There will be a strong temptation when Spurs and Chelsea walk out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon to view the latest instalment of this edgy, at times rather sour London rivalry through the prism of Rom and Harry.It is a natural comparison, a meeting of 28-year-old alpha-dog centre-forwards whose careers have converged without ever quite intersecting, a decade-long dance at one remove. As long ago as 2010 Tottenham were trying to sign the 17-year-old Romelu Lukaku of Anderlecht, already a darling of European football and a player who seemed on a different trajectory from the more homespun Harry...
If Spurs take and wisely reinvest the money for the England captain an exciting new era could dawn with the brilliant, deeply committed Korean its talismanSo let’s talk about the restaurant scene in the Son Heung-min documentary starring Park Seo-joon. What do you mean, you’ve never seen it? You know the one: the classic restaurant scene, from the 2019 docu-series Sonsational, which Son filmed for the South Korean broadcaster TVN. You know. The bit where he’s eating barbecue in Soho with one of the most famous actors in Korea. And suddenly, in the middle of this noisy restaurant, there’s this incredibly human moment between them, a fleeting glimpse of meaning and connection in their odd, hermetic existence.“I don’t even know...
Nuno Espírito Santo’s players showed a willingness to fight and thrive for their new manager as they shocked the champions“Whatever happens, we’ll give it absolutely everything.” That was the message in a tweet posted from Tottenham’s official account before their game against Manchester City, and you didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what it was getting at. The elephant in the room, the transfer saga of the summer – the England captain who may or may not have gone on strike.As it turned out the “whatever happens” was what most people expected – Harry Kane being left out of Spurs’ matchday squad. Nuno Espírito Santo, before his first game in charge, put it down to a lack...
Tottenham striker has been criticised but he has a right to be selfish – and to question the club’s inaction over past two yearsThe tendency always is to oversimplify, to try to find one person to blame: if only he had acted better, if only he had done his job properly. But it is rarely about that – or rarely just about that. The agency of individuals should not be denied. Harry Kane and Daniel Levy have played their parts in the continuing saga of the forward’s proposed move to Manchester City. But this is also about wider economic forces.Over the past week or so the majority of the focus has been on Kane. Already there is a sense his...
Tottenham striker has let himself down by failing to turn up and his move will only harden Daniel Levy’s positionSo now we know. Harry Kane really is prepared to do whatever it takes to force a move from Tottenham to Manchester City. The question had nagged away since the final week of last season when Kane and his camp had given the definitive signal that they wanted out and the battle lines were drawn, with Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, digging in and refusing to countenance the sale.Would Kane be prepared to activate the nuclear option and withdraw his cooperation at Spurs? Surely not, most people had hoped, because to do the dirty like this would be so unbecoming of...