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Don’t rush Harry Kane into the English team

By on March 21, 2015

What has England ever achieved by rushing their young starlets into their national team? Michael Owen promised as a teenager at the 1998 World Cup squad and cemented himself as England’s future star. Yet even for Owen — England’s posterchild for young talent — his early career heights were not sustained later in an injury-plagued career that might have been affected by overuse as a youngster. Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, and more proved to have been a bit too early in their development to take England far at last year’s World Cup as well. The Three Lions need to have faith in their next generation but also understand that this won’t bring immediate results. They could have prevented some damage by granting the next generation experience in other ways.

In a transition period for the England national team, from the Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard generation, many millions of eyes are always on the lookout for the “next big thing”. Recently, there’ve been a lot of them. Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha, to name two. Townsend starred for Tottenham Hotspur and England, for barely a few months before falling out of favor again. Zaha was lighting up the Championship two years ago but then wasted a key developmental period serving bench-warming duty at Manchester United.

Both were, and still are, genuinely promising talents— indeed, given time to develop at the top level, perhaps still future England stars — but nothing more concrete than that. The future of England needn’t lay upon their shoulders because they caught a run of form a few months earlier than their peers. A persistent man-hunt for England’s next star means that whenever one surfaces they must be devoured and spit back out by the public before gaining acceptance. It’s almost a tradition — including even David Beckham among its number.

Enter, Harry Kane: England’s new “Next Big Thing”; indeed, he has earned this title with twenty league goals this season and counting. He banged in three against Leicester City today, all similar poacher’s goals. For a twenty-one-year-old his poacher’s instinct — the ability to be in the right place at the right time — is uncanny. Already, the forward has come up big against Arsenal, Chelsea, and others. He is, once again, a genuinely promising talent.

But now England are threatening to fall into the same trap again. A new World Cup cycle has just begun and there is still another full year before Euro 2016. There’s no need to throw him into the deep end just yet, lacking a season-or-two’s worth of experience for Tottenham and a taste of youth tournaments as well — this summer’s Under-21 Euros offer a tantalizing promise for Kane to develop.

Roy Hodgson has seemed to come to this realization, too, and seems to be trying to downplay Kane’s near-term potential impact. He has also identified the Under-21 Euros this summer, bar one issue — Mauricio Pochettino has so far remained insistent that Kane will travel to Australia with Tottenham on a post-season tour. Kane is clearly one of Spurs’ stars this season and is set to be showcased to the world. His stock will go up, but he won’t learn much from promotional friendlies against Sydney FC.

Critics stand at the ready, with Kane having already been faulted for a lack of pace before his recent run of form; however, a revelation in his sharpness and finishing have all but made up for it, having been slowly introduced to Spurs’ starting lineup at the end of last season. Kane doesn’t need to star for England just yet — introduce him gently to international football and by World Cup 2018 he could be fully ready for the spotlight. He may be slow, but don’t rush Harry Kane.

Photo credit: Catherine Kortsmik on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.