José Mourinho has insisted Tottenham are capable of matching Harry Kane’s ambition and he is not worried about losing the striker this summer.
Although Kane sparked speculation over his future in March after warning he could look to move if Spurs are not making enough progress, Mourinho pointed out the England captain’s contract runs until 2024 and said the board was determined to satisfy his yearning for trophies.
The Spurs manager was in bullish mood before his side host West Ham on Tuesday. He rejected claims his style of play could lead to Kane leaving, described the forward as “hero Kane” after he lasted 90 minutes against Manchester United last Friday on his return from six months out, and dismissed suggestions that Daniel Levy, the chairman, and Joe Lewis, the owner, must convince their most important player to stay.
“The club doesn’t need to do anything,” Mourinho said. “The club just needs to say: ‘Harry Kane is ours, Harry Kane has a long-term contract, Harry Kane is not for sale, Harry Kane is Tottenham, Harry Kane is staying.’ We have to do nothing. We want the same [as Kane]. He doesn’t want anything different from what Mr Levy wants, Mr Lewis wants and I want. He doesn’t want anything different than us.”
Kane struggled to make an impact after returning from hamstring surgery in the draw with United but Mourinho is not worried about when the 26-year-old will be back to his best, arguing that strikers are unlikely to hit top form straight away following the resumption of the Premier League season.
“It’s not easy now for a striker to be completely sharp and Harry Kane played one game after six months,” Mourinho said. “I know that if tomorrow he scores two goals, the talk stops. But let’s suppose he doesn’t score a goal, I think it’s just the normal process. How long will it take? I don’t know. The only thing I know is that Harry had an incredible effort.
“I don’t see any problems. If I have to wait patiently to score two goals or three goals in one game, I wait. But for me it’s not Harry Kane, it’s Hero Kane because a guy that had a big surgery, has a lockdown that stopped the perfect rehabilitation, then comes to normal training only for a couple of weeks, for me Hero Kane.”
Mourinho was armed with statistics after Paul Merson suggested the manager’s pragmatic football could be bad for Kane, who scored seven goals in the former Chelsea manager’s first 11 games at Spurs before sustaining a hamstring injury on 1 January. He responded to the former Arsenal midfielder by pointing out that Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Milito, Karim Benzema and Zlatan Ibrahmovic had excellent goalscoring records thanks to his coaching.
“I have a guy called Drogba,” Mourinho said. “He played for me four seasons, he scored 186 goals [Drogba actually scored 73 goals in just over four seasons under Mourinho at Chelsea]. I had another guy who is also not bad, plays for Juventus now. He played for me three seasons, he scored 168 goals. I had another guy who is also not bad, Karim Benzema. He played for me three seasons, he scored 78 goals in three seasons.
“I had another called Milito, he played one season, he scored 30 goals, won three titles. I had another guy, he played for one and a half seasons, in the other half he had a big injury. A tall guy called Zlatan. He scored 58 goals, which gives a 29 average per season [in fact those goals were scored across two and a bit seasons].”
Spurs, who have Dele Alli and Lucas Moura available against West Ham, have announced Jan Vertonghen and Michel Vorm have signed short-term extensions until the end of the season.