HE is England’s all-time leading goalscorer and the best centre-forward in the world — but for me Harry Kane will also be the one who got away.
I was QPR manager, it was deadline day in September 2013 and a deal was all sorted to bring Harry and Tom Carroll on loan.
We were in the Championship, I knew both lads from my days at Spurs and thought they’d do a great job for us.
Back then we had a striker called Andy Johnson, a smashing player who was in the last year of his contract.
Crystal Palace had offered £1million and everything was agreed.
Harry was all ready to join us but then the people at QPR thought they could get a few quid more and Palace pulled out.
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That meant Andy stayed put and I had no slot for Harry, so he stayed at Spurs.
That turned into his breakthrough year when he got a few chances at Tottenham, although it was almost by accident really.
Roberto Soldado was injured in a European game, Harry came off the bench and did well.
The next season he was a first team regular and has been scoring ever since — though I’d be lying if I said I thought back then he would go on to do all he has.
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There are some kids you just know are going all the way. I mean, you looked at Rio Ferdinand and even as a youngster he was a Rolls-Royce.
Harry was more like Frank Lampard. They practised every day and had a great attitude.
With Harry that meant every day he’d be out there working on his shooting — left foot, right foot, just wanting to improve.
At 16 or 17, when I worked with him at Tottenham, you wouldn’t have picked him out as a future superstar. But he has made himself into a great player.
Players like Harry are a manager’s dream — never a minute’s trouble off the pitch, a great attitude and a lovely family guy.
When he broke the record on Thursday it was just a fantastic achievement for a fantastic fella. But he won’t want to stop at that.
Some people are talking about him reaching 100 goals — and if England play the likes of San Marino enough, he’ll go close!
Harry wants to play every minute of every game, so he’ll be hoping Gareth Southgate doesn’t start resting people against Ukraine today — and I don’t think he should, either.
It was a huge win in Italy on Thursday but Gareth will be keen to have qualification sorted as soon as possible.
So while there might be a few calls to give the likes of Ivan Toney or James Maddison a chance, I’d be surprised if Gareth doesn’t pick his strongest side again.
If England are a couple of goals in front, bring them on then by all means — but don’t mess about with the line-up yet.
We know Gareth has his opinions on certain players, who he knows he can rely on.
So whether Harry Maguire, for instance, is playing for Manchester United or not doesn’t matter. He’s never let Gareth down.
It was great to see Jack Grealish get a chance because you all know how highly I rate him.
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I honestly think that with the likes of Jack, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford, we have the best forwards anywhere.
Having Harry means we’re always going to get goals. I just wish I’d got him to QPR — although we still got promoted, so it didn’t work out too badly!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
