The Power of Determination

For a number of years, Tottenham Hotspur wasn’t exactly the hotbed of exciting youth prospects. In fact, the only player of great significance to have been produced from our academy in recent times has been Ledley King, and his career was littered with persistent knee problems. In spite of this, King would continually prove to be the much needed rock in our defence when called upon.

In the past few months, one Spurs player has been at the centre of worldwide media attention- Harry Kane. The rise of the academy graduate has been outstanding, and he certainly deserves the praise.

A year ago, Kane was a novelty, a gag in a season full of failures- Many assumed his kicking of the ball into the stands at Old Trafford before subsequently spitting on himself would be the highpoint in Kane’s career. Oh how wrong we were…

At the conclusion of the 13/14 season, Kane had bagged three league goals in lilywhite, and was turning a few heads. It looked as if we would enter the Pochettino era with Kane as a solid third choice striker. Again, how wrong we were.

With 23 goals in 35 games this season, Kane is the subject of global football news. He has scored more goals than any other Premier League player in all competitions, and is the second-highest scoring Englishman in the top flight. An unprecedented, and unexpected windfall.

So how did Kane embark on this rise?

After last season, it was clear Kane was a good poacher and a decent target man, but no one could have foreseen this rise. In addition to building on those attributes, he is now capable of hitting them from distance, with precision, with subtlety. His dribbling, passing, link up play and work rate have all visibly excelled. One particular quality has allowed this growth- his determination.

There’s no way this kind of ability sprung up overnight, and so there’s only one explanation for such a breakthrough. It’s obvious Kane wants to succeed; his desire to fight for every ball and chase down the opposition at every opportunity is just one exhibit of this fact. On the ball, he looks comfortable and confident, and teams are scared of his power.

Kane isn’t just blasting them home against part timers in the Europa League either. He has five goals against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool so far, and we are still to face Manchester United, Manchester City and Southampton this season.

With Kane’s outrageous rise to the top, it raises the following question: Is a footballer’s greatest trait their determination?

If Kane was the only example of such a rise, then this argument would be flawed, but look at some of the world’s greatest footballers:

Cristiano Ronaldo put in extra hours after training at both Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United to reach the legendary status he’s now achieved; Gareth Bale had to rise from an abyss of averageness to the greatest player in English football in order to earn his dream move to Real Madrid; Luka Modric spent four years under the radar at Tottenham, one year as a scapegoat at Los Blancos, before playing a key part in winning ‘La Decima’; Paul Pogba was overlooked by the greatest manager of all time at Manchester United, but is quickly becoming an elite footballer at the age of 21.

Of course, every good player has a backstory that required them to overcome adversity to reach the soaring heights of the footballing world. Some are still being developed today:

Our own Nabil Bentaleb was released from French third division side USL Dunkerque and rejected by Birmingham City before being snapped up by ourselves. Bentaleb made his professional debut in December 2013, and was part of Algeria’s 2014 World Cup squad.

Following that milestone, Bentaleb has become a pivotal part of Mauricio Pochettino’s system.

Despite still being just 20, Bentaleb has become a leader in the middle of the Park. When he plays, he controls the game with maturity and passion, something that we’ve lacked in the middle of the park for a while.

Again, another outstanding rise. Some of our players, however, could be on the way down that spiral.

Despite a personal good run of form, Mousa Dembele is detrimental to our system. The Belgian slows down our play and is forcing Christian Eriksen to play out wide where he is nowhere near as effectual when playing in the centre. This is essentially a metaphor of Dembele’s career. Whilst he is clearly a talented footballer in some sense, he’s been pushed further away from the opposition goal throughout his career- he was a striker when playing in Belgium and the Netherlands, and arrived at Tottenham as a deep lying midfielder.

Maybe Dembele was never meant to be played so high up the pitch, but his recent performances suggest he is better played in the hole behind the striker. His negative thinking on the field has prevented him from becoming a top bracket player.

Determination is a problem for other players in our side too. During Erik Lamela’s injury in January, we saw the Andros Townsend who hit the footballing scene back in August 2013. However, like his former self, Townsend quickly fell back into his bad habits of keeping his head down, running into nowhere and thinking shooting will solve everything. It’s a shame really, because when Townsend got going he really looked exciting. Hopefully, he’ll keep his head down in another sense and come back an even stronger player.

I leave you with that question once more then: Is a footballer’s greatest trait their determination?