Farewell Harry and thanks for all the goals and joy!
Most of us realised this day had to come, and it is incredibly difficult but (for now) it is time to say goodbye to the greatest goalscorer in Spurs and England's history - one of our own - Harry Kane.
It is distressing that Harry's transfer to Bayern Munich has only been confirmed today, on the very eve of our first game of the new season. That game, the season and indeed our future will be incredibly hard without the man who only last week scored four goals in our home friendly against Shakhtar Donetsk, demonstrating the full range of his skills.
Harry is irreplaceable and the signings of James Maddison, Guglielmo Vicario, Manor Solomon, Micky van de Ven, Ashley Phillips, and Alejo Veliz will not fill the void. Those last two signings are ones for the future anyway. Richarlison was bought for big money before last season and now has to step up to the plate and score his fair quota of goals.
Ange Postecoglou said in his press conference yesterday,
"I don't think there is a like-for-like replacement for Harry, but we've been planning for this, it's fair to say, for a while," said Postecoglou. "It doesn't take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen, so a lot of our business up to now is with that in mind....
....Knowing if Harry was going to leave, that's a fair few goals walking out of the door and knowing you can't just replace that with one player," said Postecoglou. "An area of the club that needed bolstering was the midfield threat in terms of goals, and that's what Madders [James Maddison] provides - goals and assists."
It remains to be seen whether the club will spend any of the considerable fee received for Kane on another goalscorer.
I am old enough to have sad memories of iconic players such as Greaves, Jennings, Hoddle, Waddle, Gascoigne, Klinsmann, Modric and Bale leaving the club. Every one of those departures was a regret and most were telling statements of the status of our serial under-achieving club and its executives.
True Spurs fans will remain loyal to the club. It is in our blood, after all. I've loved them since being 8 years old when the club was winning the double, and my love for them wiill never die.
As for Harry, I am proud of the fact that Spurs Odyssey has described just about every goal he has scored since his academy days. I remember him as a 16-year-old when he captained the under-18 side and wore the number 10 shirt, which was his number for most of his Spurs career. I saw his first senior goal for the club in Dublin for Harry Redknapp's Spurs in December 2011 and virtually all those he has scored since.
Like many Spurs fans, the goal I remember as the most memorable was our second against Arsenal in March 2016 after hard work and skill by another much-loved player in his pomp - Dele Alli. There have been many other memorable moments, but no trophies for "One of our own".
Harry owes us nothing and deserves our best wishes and our blessing. I will continue to follow his career, and I suspect we will see him back at Spurs in some capacity in the years to come. So, farewell Harry and thanks for all the goals and joy!
Harry's figures also include the following:-
Harry Kane scored 12 goals in our last 12 games of last season, failing to score in just two of those games. Another record he achieved was to have scored more last day goals than any other Premier League player. That goes for Boxing Day too. 112 of Harry's 213 Premier League goals were scored away from home.
Amazingly, Harry's last Premier League hat-trick was against Southampton on Boxing Day 2017, although he has scored two hat-tricks in European games since, along with five for England!
213 Premier League goals in 317 Premier League appearances for Spurs. He is the second highest Premier League scorer - 47 behind Alan Shearer's 260 goal record.
280 club goals in 435 appearances. He became our all-time top scorer when he scored against Manchester City in February, is tenth in our list of all-time club appearances, and second behind only Hugo Lloris in terms of Premier League club appearances.
Harry has scored 51 London derby goals - more than any other player.
Harry struck his 185th goal in August's 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, overtaking Sergio Aguero's record for goals for a single club in the competition.
He became the first player to net 100 Premier League away goals with his penalty in October's 3-1 defeat at Arsenal, and went on to add another 12 goals on the road.
Kane's 10th goal on Boxing Day in Spurs' 2-2 draw with Brentford made him the outright leading scorer for goals on 26 December.
With that same goal, Kane achieved the feat of scoring against all 32 teams he has faced in the Premier League becoming the only player to face more than one opponent in the division and net against all of them.
His winner against Palace in May was his 10th headed goal of 2022/23, the most by a player in a single campaign. It was also his 100th Premier League home goal. He also scored in 26 different Premier League matches last season - the most ever in a 38-match season and even more than Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland, who scored 36 goals. Harry's total was 30, which made him the first player to score 30 or more goals twice in a 38-game Premier League season.
Harry's total of 76 European appearances for Spurs is more than any other player. Sadly, he will not be able to increase on that figure this season.
Harry also became England's all-time goalscorer last season and will certainly increase his current total of 58 goals in 84 appearances.
Harry's name and achievements will crop up in countless match previews to come, including that for tomorrow's game at Brentford! He will forever be a Tottenham Hotspur legend.
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