Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Ryan Mason has claimed that his side are “very lucky” to have Harry Kane after the England captain’s landmark winner in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
The 29-year-old overtook Wayne Rooney into second place in the Premier League’s all-time scoring charts with a 209th top-flight strike to hand the Lilywhites their first win in four matches.
With a minute to go in the first half, Kane picked out Pedro Porro with a stunning cross-field ball before the Spaniard returned the favour, crossing for the striker to head home at the back post.
Kane’s effort settled an otherwise dull London derby between Spurs and Palace, and Mason believes that the Three Lions skipper is an “example” for any young forward to look up to.
“Yeah, I mean Harry Kane, I think we can sit here all day and speak about Harry,” Mason said in his post-game press conference, as quoted by football.london.
“Naturally people see the goals, the records. But probably what doesn’t get touched upon enough is the individual brilliance from a technical point of view. Most importantly the team player, the humility.
“He’s humble, he works hard, he fights for the team. He’s recovering, he’s working back. He’s an example for any young player to see a top player and how to act. We’re very lucky to have him, we know that, we feel it every day.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a great deal of change in terms of the person, the mindset, the elite mindset, the desire to keep working hard and improve. Naturally I think we’ll all talk about Harry’s goals and when he plays games of football he will continue to score goals. We know that.
“Also that elite mindset, that example that he sets every day in and around the place, it’s great to be around, because when you have people like that they inspire you to be better. We appreciate Harry and we value him so highly in this football club.
“It probably doesn’t get spoken about enough in terms of his overall performances because we put a lot of attention on his goals and his goalscoring records but he’s a joy to watch. In this country we should really appreciate him because he’s a special, special player.”
Having left Rooney in his wake, Kane has now firmly set his sights on dethroning runaway leader Alan Shearer, who sits 51 goals clear of the Tottenham talisman with his 260 Premier League strikes.
However, Mason refused to entertain questions over Kane surpassing Shearer and insisted that the 29-year-old must remain focused on the present rather than the future, adding: “I don’t like speaking too much about the future because from personal experience you can’t plan too far ahead in football terms and in life.
“You’ve got to be in the moment. Harry is certainly one player who is focused in every game and he gives the best version of himself every time he’s out on that football pitch, whether it’s on the training ground or matchday. Hopefully Harry continues to play and I’m sure he’ll continue to score goals.”
One slight sour note of Saturday’s win for Spurs was a shoulder injury to defender Clement Lenglet, although Mason is hopeful that the Barcelona loanee has not sustained anything serious.
“He had a shoulder problem, you could probably see. Hopefully nothing too serious, too bad. He got treatment on the pitch, it was late on in the game, it was a set piece and we didn’t really want to lose a central defender to defend a set piece so we made that change,” Mason added.
Tottenham have risen back above Brighton & Hove Albion into sixth place in the table, but Manchester United are four points clear of the Lilywhites in the final Champions League spot with two games in hand.
Mason’s troops now have a full week to rest and recuperate before they meet fellow European hopefuls Aston Villa next Saturday.
