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| England striker Harry Kane hopes to set the record straight by getting back amongst the goals |
HARRY KANE wishes to set the record straight.
There has been no trailblazing start to the season to go with the rush of goals of last term, and if his performances have been highlighted on Match of the Day it has been to pick holes rather than praise them.
Yet as talk turned to one-season wonders, the Tottenham striker momentarily bristled.
"I know I am more than that," said Kane. "I don't think last year was lucky. I worked very hard to get where I was last year and I know I have got to keep working hard to progress, but I am very self-confident.
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| Kane spent time with England and Newcastle legend Alan Shearer at a walking football event |
"I know if I get chances that I will score."
This is the flip-side of fame for Kane: criticism, doubt and barbs. Though the scrutiny to which he is subjected following a goalless start to the campaign in an under-performing Tottenham adds context to a remarkable rise which saw him score within seconds of his full England debut back in March.
It is worth remembering he did not start a top-flight game until the home match against Stoke on November 9 last term and had been restricted to 95 minutes in various cameos in Premier League until then. If anything, he is a seven-month wonder.
"That [scrutiny] was always going to be the case because I came on the scene so unexpectedly last year people were always going to wonder, 'Can he do it again?'" said Kane, 22.
"But it isn't, 'Can he score 10 goals in his first 4 games of the season?' We will see at the end of the season how it is. Even if I don't score as many goals as last year, I am playing week in, week out and hopefully I can keep doing that and do my best for the team.
"Probably the Everton chance was the first real chance I've had all season that I'd say I probably should have scored.
"As a striker you are going to get chances where you miss, but it is about how you cope with that. Some strikers go down a bad path and lose their confidence, but I am fairly self-confident and have a lot of self-belief."
The point was emphasised to Kane last week when he spent time with Alan Shearer at a walking football event, the chance to rub shoulders with an England legend proving too good an opportunity not to also pick his brains.
"That was a good laugh and it was good to talk to him," said Kane, who has scored twice for Tottenham since plundering a hat-trick against Leicester on March 21.
"We shared some things because obviously he's been in the same sort of situation as I am now and he gave me some good tips.
"He just said that you are going to go through games without scoring, but that the best strikers in the world just put it to the back of their mind and focus on the next chance or goal, and that's what I try to do.
"It was great to hear that that's what he went through sometimes and what he did about it. If I can do the same and keep focused then that's what I can do."
Kane will hope the free hit that an international fixture against San Marino offers allows him to return to the goal standard with England coach Roy Hodgson set to hand him a third cap in the Euro 2016 qualifier in the Serravalle Stadium.
That his time with the seniors was interrupted during the summer was of his own choosing as he volunteered to drop back down to the Under-21s for the European Championships in the Czech Republic.
His involvement stretched his number of competitive appearances to 56 (32 goals) - Wayne Rooney played 47 (22 goals) - plus an end-of-season jaunt across the world to the Far East. Tottenham warned of burn-out, but when it came to it manager Mauricio Pochettino did not choose to ease Kane into the campaign if only because he has no other strikers.
"It was always going to be a case of if I didn't score early on in the season then people were going to say, 'Is he tired or is he not?' But I'm 100 per cent fit and feel as fit as I did this time last year and I'm ready to go. I've had no problems."
If Kane was a different character he would have used Manchester United's interest in him this summer as a lever to spark another transfer saga. It did not materialise.
"I am a Tottenham boy," he adds. "I have grown up with the club. I know the club and I love the club. We have got a great team, a young team that is only going to get better and better. I am happy. I am excited for the future. There is a new stadium as well.
"Everything just seems to be going in the right direction so I am excited."
All that is missing is that goal.
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