Harry Kane is all Tottenham Hotspur supporters can talk about at the moment. In 33 games in all competitions, Kane has 20 goals this season, including 10 in the Premier League. The 21-year-old is one of England’s top prospects, but he’s much more than that to the club he plays for.
Harry Kane is everything Spurs fans have ever wanted
Sorry for all the jokes about The Scorpions and natural disasters. You’ll have to hear them for a long time.
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Spurs haven't had a local legend leading the team since the retirement of Ledley King, the long-time captain who played for the club from 1996 to 2012. Despite being hampered by knee injuries for the majority of his career, King was a constant fixture in the squad, a dressing room leader even when he couldn't play, and most importantly to the fans, a local product who came up through the team's youth academy.
They've also been looking for a star striker. Kane is currently playing at a level that a Tottenham striker hasn't achieved since Dimitar Berbatov earned himself a move to Manchester United in 2008. Spurs have qualified for Champions League since then, with a variety of forwards slipping in and out of good form, but they've been searching for someone to fill Berbatov's shoes. It appears that they've finally found him.
But when Kane scores, the song you’ll hear echoing from the White Hart Lane faithful isn’t one about his skill or goal-scoring prowess. Instead, it’s “He’s one of our own, Harry Kane, he’s one of our own.”
This, more than beating Arsenal or finishing in a Champions League place, is what's important to Tottenham supporters at the moment -- having one of their own as the face of the club. King is one of the greatest Tottenham players of all time, but Spurs have been starved for academy products in the first team since he burst onto the scene. More than anything else, Spurs want their Steven Gerrard or Francesco Totti. Kane has a chance to be just that.
His status as ‘one of our own’ will be in doubt forever because of a picture you’ve probably seen floating around social media. It’s 8-year-old Kane in an Arsenal kit, from when he played for their youth team.
Harry #Kane "He's one of our own" they said #Arsenal pic.twitter.com/gy9aDmNxQr
— Wael (@DCalimero) February 6, 2015 In a recent interview with Tottenham’s website, Kane said “I wanted to wear a Tottenham kit but I don’t think that would have gone down too well ... I was a kid, I just wanted to play football.” Spurs fans have accepted this as a reasonable enough explanation, as they should. Life-long Rangers supporter Kenny Dalglish famously signed for Celtic as a teenager and went on to become a legend for the club. Kane’s been with Spurs since the age of 11 -- it doesn’t get much more ‘one of our own’ than that.
The more Kane talks about Spurs, the more he endears himself to fans. In a recent interview, he talked about staying at the club for another decade and said he looked up to players like King and Gerrard.
”Tottenham are a great club on the rise. I hope we get better and I’d love to stay here for as long as possible.
If I’m still here in 10 years, I’d be over the moon. A lot of players today, when they do well, they end up going to another club or moving abroad. It depends on the situation at the time but at the moment, I’m looking to be a Tottenham player for many years.
You look at players like Ledley, Ryan Giggs and Steven Gerrard. To stay at one club at the top level the way they have shows how good they have been. It’s great for them and great for the game. It’s fantastic for the fans to have players who have been there for so many years.”
Fans love this stuff. And besides, supporters going all-in on Kane being the club savior is much less about who Kane supported as an 8-year-old or what he says about staying at Spurs and more about whether or not Tottenham’s academy is capable of turning local boys into first team players. For long-time supporters who remember what the Premier League was like before extreme commercialization, it’s the only remaining link to the game they fell in love with.
Spurs, like most of the Premier League, have been affected by the way football has changed. There are higher ticket prices at the Lane, rules against standing up and constant fights about singing certain songs, as well as bringing flags and drums into the ground. Tottenham are more of a brand than a local institution, but supporters aren’t getting anything for it. The other clubs who have gone all-in on becoming #brands instead of local clubs are actually winning trophies and qualifying for Champions League regularly. If Spurs were successful, their fans might be a bit less jaded about what the club was turning into.
Fans aren’t going to walk away from Spurs entirely, because Stockholm Syndrome. Some have the strength to walk away from something they don’t love anymore, but most feel like they’re obligated to support them for life. Instead of leaving, they find reasons to stay. One of those reasons is the club’s seemingly improving youth system. Many Spurs supporters are more interested in what Alex Pritchard is doing on loan or what Josh Onomah is doing in the Under-21s than what the first team is up to -- or, at least, they were before Kane burst onto the scene.
Kane being a local academy product might -- as he hinted at himself -- also prevent him from being the next Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Luka Modric or Gareth Bale. Those players, who had no long-term ties to the club, had no reason to stick around when big offers came in. Spurs were always supposed to be a stepping stone to something bigger for all of them. While Kane could very well have his head turned by a Manchester United or Real Madrid megabucks bid, it's also easy for Spurs fans to talk themselves into him turning those clubs down.
The only reason Tim Sherwood was able to avoid complete and utter backlash was his willingness to throw youngsters like Kane into the fire. He started picking Kane in the starting XI last April, leading to him scoring in three consecutive games. He had arrived, and he was 'one of our own'.
Plus, getting attached to Kane and throwing out hyperbolic statements like ‘he’s our Francesco Totti’ was easy. He’s never looked out of place. Even when he was just 18, getting run-outs for Harry Redknapp’s Europa League B-squad, he looked like someone with a future at Spurs.
Even before his recent outburst, Michael Caley pointed out at Cartilage Free Captain that, despite the small sample size, Kane’s underlying stats were already some of the best ever for a young striker in the Premier League. In November, after Kane started to get more opportunities in the first team, Caley wrote in another piece that his Expected Goals plus Expected Assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League was only second to Luis Suarez since 2012. This didn’t count his outrageous Europa League or cup performances, and Kane has scored six more league goals since then.
Arsenal fans might mock Spurs supporters for the ‘one of our own’ song, and basically everyone is sick of seeing ‘HERE I AM! ROCK YOU LIKE A HARRY KANE!” on their Twitter timelines a few dozen times every weekend, but there are a multitude of reasons that Spurs fans are behind him in a way they haven’t been behind a player since King. He’s everything they want -- an academy product who might rebuff big offers, a striker to replace Berbatov and a legitimately amazing prospect.
The memes will not die. The hyperbole will not die. The songs will not stop. Harry Kane is everything Spurs fans have ever wanted from a star player.
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