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Mauricio Pochettino wants Harry Kane to stay at Spurs indefinitely but says 'in football you cannot be sure'
Mauricio Pochettino warned Tottenham Hotspur cannot afford to take Harry Kane for granted after the striker opened his goalscoring account for 2018.
Kane netted twice to help Tottenham into the fourth round of the FA Cup as, despite the personal records, he and manager Pochettino both seek their first piece of silverware.
Spurs have been given another reminder of how tough it can be for even the Premier League’s best clubs to hold on to their stars after Liverpool agreed to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in a £142million deal. Pochettino hopes Kane can become a one-club man, but is realistic enough to acknowledge that Tottenham must play their part in making sure the love affair continues.
Kane could earn considerably more by leaving Spurs and would also be guaranteed trophies at one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
“Harry is so special,” said Pochettino. “Because he loves Tottenham and he has always been at Tottenham. But we need to be clever how we manage him. The player needs to choose to stay here, you cannot force the player to stay here.
“Our job is to try to work together and try to achieve everything we want at the club and of course Harry is such a special player. I told him only a few special players like [Francesco] Totti can spend all their career in one club.
“I think Harry is this type of a player who can stay all his career at Tottenham because he loves Tottenham. But in football you cannot be sure.
“It is today, the present, tomorrow, after tomorrow you need to doubt. That is why it is so important to work together and try to achieve all that you want.
“And of course this present at Tottenham, this future at Tottenham, this project is so exciting and I hope, we hope, that all together we spend a lot of time here and try to win trophies and achieve what we want.”
Pochettino had originally been asked whether or not Coutinho’s move was a boost to Tottenham’s Premier League top four hopes, but the Argentine decided to take a different approach to the question. “I think it is a massive example or massive point to show how this business is,” said Pochettino. “How difficult it is for the clubs to keep their best players.
“Liverpool is one of the best clubs in the world and it looks when Coutinho, or a player like Coutinho, wants to leave, how difficult it is to keep your best player.
“But that is [the situation] today with Coutinho, who I think Liverpool wanted to keep but was difficult to keep. And look what happened with Cristiano Ronaldo at Man United and Zidane at Juventus, Figo in Barcelona. It is a lot of examples that it is so, so tough to keep your best player if the player says he wants to leave.
“That is why it is so important how you care for your players. It is why you need to anticipate things. It is so important to work with the human side and then to provide the player, the club and the team an exciting moment, and try and build a project that they feel comfortable with and they are happy to be with you.
“Today, when a player decides to leave, look what happens. If another club pays the type of money they pay - like Barcelona with Liverpool - how do you stop it?”
AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley admitted that he thought it was a “wind up” when he saw Kane’s name on the Tottenham team-sheet on Sunday.
Kane was not even born when the Crazy Gang beat Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final and the England international succeeded where John Aldridge had failed by finding a way past a Wimbledon goalkeeper at Wembley.
But Tottenham had survived a major first-half scare before Kane broke Wimbledon hearts with two goals in three second-half minutes.
Jimmy Abdou’s shot looked like it was heading towards the top corner until stand-in Spurs goalkeeper Michel Vorm managed to tip the ball on to the underside of his crossbar and then save the follow up shot from Liam Trotter.
Kane himself had gone close on a couple of occasions before the break, but it was two goals just after the hour mark that killed the tie and any chance of an upset.
For the first, Kieran Trippier played in Moussa Sissoko down the right and the midfielder’s cross was converted by Kane. The 24-year-old then doubled his and Tottenham’s tally by sweeping the ball into the net after a Kyle Walker-Peters shot had been deflected into his path.
Not even a thunderbolt from Jan Vertonghen, which increased Tottenham’s lead to three goals, stopped the Wimbledon fans taking great delight in jeering former MK Dons midfielder Dele Alli, who was sent on as a substitute.
Pochettino took Kane off before he had the chance to complete his hat-trick and the FA Cup may yet prove to be an important competition for the two men Tottenham must keep hold of.