Harry Kane does not need to be pitied despite his lack of trophies at Tottenham

Early on Sunday evening, a few hours before Spurs made their latest admission of failure by parting ways with Antonio Conte and beginning the search for yet another new manager, Harry Kane stood on the pitch, with his wife, Kate, and his three young children by his side, basking in the applause of a capacity crowd at Wembley.

As the England team that he leads prepared to play a European Championship qualifier against Ukraine, Kane was asked to step forward from the line-up to be presented with a trophy in the form of a gleaming golden boot, in recognition of his achievement in breaking the all-time England goalscoring record with his penalty against Italy in Naples last Thursday.

It is a storied record, perhaps the most prized in English football. Sir Bobby Charlton held it for 45 years with 49 goals before Wayne Rooney surpassed it in 2015 and set a new mark of 53.

Now it belongs to Kane and it is likely to belong to him for a generation or more. As Kane held the trophy aloft at Wembley, players from both England and Ukraine applauded him, too.

Some still seek to use the juxtaposition of Kane’s scoring achievements and his lack of trophies with Tottenham as a stick to beat him with as if it will somehow undermine his legacy.

The collision of Spurs’ current woes and Kane’s relentless assault on records held by legends like Rooney, Alan Shearer and Jimmy Greaves has thrown the contrast into particularly sharp relief.

But, please, spare me all the ‘poor Harry’ bleating from supporters of other clubs. Spare me the faux-pity aimed at Kane for being at a club that has not won a major trophy for 15 years. Spare me the idea that his career has been devalued by Spurs’ drought. Spare me the idea his lack of medals is something that will be held against him when he retires if it remains that way. Spare me the idea he is a prisoner at Spurs. It simply isn’t true.

It may be used as a reason to mock him by his detractors but it is tempting to think some fans of other teams hope that mockery may act as a lever to get him to join their club instead.

What Manchester United would give to have Kane in their team. What Chelsea would give to have him. He would improve any side in the Premier League, with the possible exception of Manchester City, so it is little wonder opposition fans want him out of Spurs.

The debate about Spurs and Kane and should he stay or should he go is a cyclical argument that rages and then recedes almost every season.

It reaches peaks and then dwindles into troughs and with his contract due to expire at the end of next season and Kane turning 30 in the summer, we are approaching a point of maximum volume. Maybe this summer will finally be the summer that Spurs chief executive Daniel Levy finally decides to cash in.

Kane may well leave this summer. It appeared that he was open to a move to City two years ago but the move never came.

The idea that he has to move to give his career legitimacy, though, is a fallacy. It relies on the one-dimensional idea that success in football is measured purely on how many trinkets you can hang round your neck or how many pictures you have of yourself lifting a tin pot over your head.

Football is a team sport and trophies are the ultimate expression of success and of course they are to be valued and aspired to. But let me ask you this: Alan Shearer is one of England’s greatest ever strikers, too, and what will you remember him for? Winning a title with Blackburn Rovers? Maybe, but I doubt it.

I think of Shearer and I think of the fact that he is the record goalscorer for his hometown club, Newcastle United, and that he will be revered by their fans for the rest of his life. He never won a trophy at St James’s Park.

I think of Greaves and I do not think of a player who never won a league title for any of the clubs he played for. I think of a striker who was held in the greatest esteem as a goalscorer and as a man for his whole life because of his ability, because of the pleasure and the joy he brought fans and because of the records he set.

His 357 goals in the top tier of English football is a mark that may never be broken. Who cares that he never won a championship?

Success means different things to different people. So poor Harry? Just get him out of there? Do me a favour. If Kane retired tomorrow, if he retired without ever winning a trophy for Spurs, he would still be regarded as one of the greats of the English game and a hero for Spurs fans for eternity. That’s not everything, and it is obvious that Kane is desperate to win trophies, but it is still not a bad bargain.

There is this, too: despite the fact he has not won trophies at Spurs, playing for the club has given him a platform to play in a Champions League final, to become England captain, to win the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup, to play in the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley, to break the England goalscoring record and to be the leader of a team that is heading towards next year’s Euros in Germany with the best chance of winning a trophy for this country since 1966.

A move can bring problems as well as opportunities. Look at how it has worked out so far for Kalvin Phillips at Manchester City, say. Spurs may not have given him trophies but they have offered him stability.

Maybe they will hire Julian Nagelsmann or re-hire Mauricio Pochettino to replace Conte. Maybe that will be the catalyst for the improvements Spurs must make. Maybe one of them would have the effect on Spurs that Erik ten Hag has had on United and Mikel Arteta has had at Arsenal.

And if Kane moves, given that he cannot realistically go to City or to Arsenal, the country’s top two teams, where can he go that gives him something close to a guarantee of success? United would be his best bet but it is still a gamble. And if he moves abroad, his chances of overhauling Shearer’s Premier League record of 260 goals will disappear.

The odds are Kane will thrive wherever he goes. He is that good. But here is one other thing to bear in mind: the big picture suggests that England – rather than any club – represents his best chance of glory in the years to come.

If Kane captains England to victory in Germany next year or at the World Cup in 2026, he will be this generation’s Bobby Moore. And nobody ever asked Moore about what he didn’t achieve for his club.

WHY SAKA GETS MY VOTE AS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

It was a pleasure watching Bukayo Saka playing for England in Naples last week and again against Ukraine at Wembley on Sunday night.

There is a joy and a cleverness and a subtlety about the way he plays his football that cannot help but transmit itself to spectators and observers everywhere and he has become one of Gareth Southgate’s most influential players as England dream of a tilt at winning next year’s European Championship.

There are still a couple of months to go before we choose our FWA Footballer of the Year and players like Alexis Mac Allister, Erling Haaland, Marcus Rashford, Miguel Almiron and Martin Odegaard would be high on any list. But if I had to vote tomorrow, I’d vote for Saka.

NO CITY WORSHIPS A SPORTING HERO LIKE NAPLES

I loved visiting Naples last week for England’s game against Italy. I have only been once before – for one of Andre Villas-Boas’ last games in charge of Chelsea when they lost there in February 2012 – and I didn’t have time to see much of the city.

This time, I walked around and soaked up the city’s football culture. It was a real education. I don’t think I have ever been to a city that openly reveres a sporting hero as much as Naples reveres Diego Maradona.

It is not just the giant murals in the Spanish Quarter and the flags bearing his image that hang from almost every balcony.

It is the portraits that sit randomly outside fishmongers, the stadium that bears his name, the images of him in religious dress, the shrines to him, the ubiquitous worship of him.

I have seen reverence for George Best in Belfast, Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai and Pele in Santos. But none of it compares with Maradona’s presence in Naples.