When Harry Kane sits down for talks with Ange Postecoglou this week, the new Tottenham boss will seek his opinions on where the club has gone astray and how it can return to challenging for silverware.
Kane has already said publicly that Spurs have lost some of the “values” that made them successful under Mauricio Pochettino and, as someone who has been part of their relative rise and fall, Postecoglou trusts the England captain to be insightful and to the point.
Postecoglou will also lay out his vision for the club to Kane, who reported back this morning, and the hope is that their meeting will be the start of a process of persuading Spurs’s talisman to extend his contract, which runs until the end of the coming season.
When they finally come face to face, Kane may be struck by the contrast in message from the Australian to his predecessors, Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, whose own first meeting with the forward was captured by Amazon Prime’s cameras as part of a fly-on-the-wall documentary.
In November 2019, shortly after he had succeeded Pochettino, Mourinho invited Kane into his office and promised to make him a global superstar.
“The world looks to English football with an incredible respect, but they still think that the movie stars of football belong to other places,” Mourinho told Kane. “We have to build your status in that direction. My profile, I am little bit like that as a coach. My dimension is universal and, by being with me, I think I can help you to [explode].”
In contrast, Postecoglou is never likely to describe his “dimension” as “universal” and has promised that Kane will be treated no differently to any other member of the squad. “I don’t think it’s my role to sit down and treat people in a manner because of their circumstances, I’m big on treating everyone the same,” he said on Monday, when asked about his upcoming conversation with Kane.
The break between Postecoglou’s approach and that of his predecessors is significant, and speaks to Spurs’s change of direction under the 58-year-old. Postecoglou’s appointment marks the end of an unsuccessful spell in which the club hoped big-name coaches and players, namely Kane and Heung-min Son, could drag them over the line to silverware, and a return to building towards success through collectivism and a clear ethos set by the head coach.
It remains to be seen how Kane will react to Postecoglou’s message, but after four largely joyless seasons spent mainly under established coaches, a more collective approach may appeal to the forward, who is plainly a superstar but, above all, a top professional and team player.
Kane is expected to tell Postecoglou that he has an open mind about staying, but if he remains unconvinced in the medium term, the former Celtic coach is likely to be more relaxed about his future than Mourinho or Conte, who would have found it unacceptable to sell him.
While Postecoglou has said he wants Kane to stay, he expects total buy-in from every player and has made it clear that he should not have to give anyone the hard-sell about his project. More so than his predecessors, Postecoglou is likely back himself to build a successful side with or without Kane, and has said he will not allow Bayern Munich’s aggressive pursuit of the striker to become a distraction.
“If I spend too much time worrying about the impact it might have either way, I’m going to miss trying to build a team because, ultimately, that’s what’s going to make us successful: if we build a team that plays a certain way,” Postecoglou said.
Towards the end of last season, Kane candidly said “a lot has to change” for Spurs to be successful and, ultimately, he will only be persuaded to sign a bumper new contract by success on the pitch. When he meets Postecoglou, though, he is likely to appreciate that the club’s approach has changed, for better or worse.
