Daniel Levy and the Tottenham Hotspur board have done many things over the years. One thing they did not do: fail Harry Kane. Because to say that implies that Harry Kane is above the club itself.
We may have never won a competition while he was playing for the men’s team but we made finals, including a Champions League run that only got to Madrid because of his teammate’s heroic efforts. He literally played no part in the quarter or semifinals*. Were they failing him then? The answer is obvious and not even difficult to realize. If Harry deserved better than every one of us deserved better because we are no less “the club” than he is.
Now was.
We spent years with misfit managers of a certain pedigree to placate our former number 10 and bring trophies. We hated those managers for the way they always approached their job as a separate piece. And to position Harry Kane as a footballer who has been failed is no different. It implies responsibility for all ten members of the squad but him. All of the board, but not him. All of the weaklings who didn’t want it bad enough in the stands. It’s, and I can’t say this strongly enough, nonsense.
It’s a misery business, this modern trophy-obsessed news cycle. We all want to win. Harry wasn’t the only one. But I’m going to be supporting our teams even though our board frequently get it wrong. I’m not switching allegiances. And I wish Harry well but, between he and I, only one of us is still here and has never tried to leave at all.
All of this. I didn't want him to leave, I'll miss him, but also: ok quitter, goodbye.
This isn't running down his contract to leave on a free and pocket a generational signing bonus (although I'm sure Bayern are giving him the bag), it's walking away from home and a shot at a massive record to... go get some German trophies and hope for a good UCL draw?
That's it? It's so pedestrian. So ordinary. A move that fucking Sadio Mane just made. A move that reduces the distance in stature between him and his peers, not increases it. So ignorant of the greatness not just that he was in pursuit of, but that he had already built.
Look, he's the handsome 30 year old multimillionaire here not me. So he can call his own shots. But what he made himself through sheer effort was something different than the rest of these dicks, even the insanely talented ones, because he made himself the very best at one thing, then another, then another, all without leaving his boyhood team.
Maybe that's not what he wanted. Maybe he wanted to be the second whoever instead of the only Harry Kane. But Harry more than anything feels to me like a man who was told for years that he was better than his situation -- mostly by people who profit off this sort of protracted drama but also by Daniel Levy, who reportedly brought him in to the conversations to hire most dire asshole managers -- and started to believe it. But in listening to them, he's shed that. He's no longer a talisman; he's just another player. To us, to Bayern, and to the wagging tongues that told him he had to bend to the powers that be and sign for a 'big' club.
He doesn't owe us shit. I haven't even touched on the many reasons I'm mad at Daniel Levy for getting us here (even though I think he played the sale itself as well as he could). So thank you Harry for the years of service the the memories. I hope he gets what he wants. But even if he does, it'll be things other people already have, and already have more of, and there's no going back.
True failure will be son retiring without silverware ( a true leader who signed during our hardest period while the so called generational talent sat out to force a move to man city )
All of this. I didn't want him to leave, I'll miss him, but also: ok quitter, goodbye.
This isn't running down his contract to leave on a free and pocket a generational signing bonus (although I'm sure Bayern are giving him the bag), it's walking away from home and a shot at a massive record to... go get some German trophies and hope for a good UCL draw?
That's it? It's so pedestrian. So ordinary. A move that fucking Sadio Mane just made. A move that reduces the distance in stature between him and his peers, not increases it. So ignorant of the greatness not just that he was in pursuit of, but that he had already built.
Look, he's the handsome 30 year old multimillionaire here not me. So he can call his own shots. But what he made himself through sheer effort was something different than the rest of these dicks, even the insanely talented ones, because he made himself the very best at one thing, then another, then another, all without leaving his boyhood team.
Maybe that's not what he wanted. Maybe he wanted to be the second whoever instead of the only Harry Kane. But Harry more than anything feels to me like a man who was told for years that he was better than his situation -- mostly by people who profit off this sort of protracted drama but also by Daniel Levy, who reportedly brought him in to the conversations to hire most dire asshole managers -- and started to believe it. But in listening to them, he's shed that. He's no longer a talisman; he's just another player. To us, to Bayern, and to the wagging tongues that told him he had to bend to the powers that be and sign for a 'big' club.
He doesn't owe us shit. I haven't even touched on the many reasons I'm mad at Daniel Levy for getting us here (even though I think he played the sale itself as well as he could). So thank you Harry for the years of service the the memories. I hope he gets what he wants. But even if he does, it'll be things other people already have, and already have more of, and there's no going back.
*Correction. Harry got hurt in the quarterfinal, first leg
True failure will be son retiring without silverware ( a true leader who signed during our hardest period while the so called generational talent sat out to force a move to man city )