As Harry Kane glanced home Tottenham Hotspur’s late equaliser against Chelsea, the joy and relief were clear for all to see. The England captain had spurned a glorious opportunity earlier in the game when one-on-one with Édouard Mendy but made no mistake in glancing home from a corner in the dying embers of the game to rescue a point.
It’s Kane’s first goal of the season, and it’s becoming clear that the Premier League’s all-time scoring record is in the 29-year-old’s sights. Alan Shearer is still sitting pretty at the top with 260 goals, and Kane is still 76 goals behind him. Even if he can average around 20 goals a season, it’s going to take a few more fruitful campaigns for Kane to overtake Shearer.
As far as public interviews go, Kane will always maintain that the team is the most important thing, but you can tell that he has a thirst for finding the back of the net — which ultimately aids Tottenham’s chances in the Premier League betting. Unfortunately, his goal returns have eased up slightly in the last couple of seasons, with Kane failing to hit the 20-goal mark in the Premier League in three of the last four seasons.
Part of that is down to Kane adopting a slightly different role. He is no longer deployed as an out-and-out centre forward, but rather as someone who is capable of dropping deep, picking up the ball and finding teammates with killer passes. 21 Premier League assists in the past two seasons reflects Kane’s ability as a provider as well as a scorer, and when you look at his assist stats in previous seasons, it’s clear that he has changed his game in recent times.
Of course, Kane would sacrifice personal goal tallies if it meant getting his hands on silverware as Tottenham’s captain. The club’s trophy cabinet has been gathering dust for the last 15 years or so, with Spurs boasting no competition wins since their League Cup triumph in 2008. They’ve been in a few finals, most notably the 2019 Champions League final, but have been unable to get over the line.
Given that it took Kane several years to truly announce himself in the Tottenham starting 11, it would be a stunning achievement if he were to beat Shearer’s record and become the highest-scoring Premier League player of all time.
One thing’s for sure — it looks as though Kane will be a Tottenham player for the foreseeable future. A move to Manchester City seemed to be a certainty last summer, but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy simply wouldn’t allow Kane to leave, and with the forward having now reached his 29th birthday, it’s unlikely he will get a big-money move to another top-level club.
For now, Kane appears content, and that is the basis on which high goal-scoring tallies can be built. It will take a monumental effort between now and the end of his career for Kane to top the Premier League’s scoring charts, but given his consistency and favourable injury record since he burst onto the scene for Spurs in the top flight, you wouldn’t put it past him.
