Look at the goals Greaves scored for Chelsea, Milan and West Ham over his career and Kane is no where near that total. Football existed before the Premier League although Sky try to ignore history. Undoubtably Kane is a good player but too much is made of him equalling Greave's Spurs record.
Having seen Greavsie and Gerd Muller play many times I can honestly say and believe they are the two best strikers I've ever seen. Harry Kane isn't even in my top 50. Also Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney are leading the England scorers from open play 46 each I think Kane is about 15 behind. Good player but not a great IMHO
Not making a direct comparison with Greaves but one of our own was one of the best goal scorers, Kevin Mark Phillips was the Premier League top scorer in the 1999–2000 season with 30 goals for Sunderland, a tally which won him the European Golden Shoe. He remains the only Englishman to win the trophy
The sooner Kane takes Rooney's record the better. Talent plus graft and a good attitude should always be seen to beat exceptional talent but zero application.
Bit harsh on the Wayne there, but cant argue about Harry Hotspur he is the consummate professional and seems to be very popular within the football fraternity.
I'm quite angry with Rooney's wasted potential. I think he was more gifted than Ronaldo and very close to Messi, but simply stopped progressing because of off field attitude.
I agree, but is it ignorance or culture to blame, hard to say. Same with Gazza, another who could and should have been right up there alongside the best , instead of the sad joke he is today.
I am always wary of comparing across eras because there are different rules etc. That said I enjoy doing it. I agree Greavsie was a step up ability wise. Kane though is a rare modern footballer who has stuck around long enough to put himself in the discussion about someone as great as Greaves. I have a theory about centre forwards 15 years or more ago having a different job to now. In my mind it means we dont really see the sort of goal returns from 1 player we have done in the past. I remember watching the likes of Clive Allen and John Aldridge and thinking they always score. Then along comes Haaland and makes me look a fool.
To be fair to Gazza, he has and always has had mental health issues. I read his book years ago, some of his problems go back to his childhood (death of a friend in his arms after a traffic accident being one example), plus his home life seemed chaotic growing up. It's no wonder he turned to drink and got screwed up.
It's not enough to just be a goalscorer these days, the modern striker is now the first defender, a playmaker and a goalscorer. Kane has scored more than 1 in 2 for 8 of the last 9 seasons - he fell short last season scoring 17 in 37. It's difficult to compare across such vast eras but you can compare more accurately over recent eras. For comparison (premier league games only): Kane 300 games 199 goals 0.66 goals per game. Aguero 275 games 184 goals 0.66 goals per game. Rooney 460 games 198 goals 0.43 goals per game. Henry 254 games 174 goals 0.68 goals per game. Shearer 441 games 260 goals 0.58 goals per game. Kane is one of the most prolific strikers in the Premier League era - yes I'm aware football was around before the Premier League, but the PL is over 30 years old now and people need to realise that it's a significant period of time.
Couldn't agree more with your thoughts here. Also annoys me that he has any scoring record for England the bloke didn't apply himself once it got to the finals and they played half decent teams majority of his goals scored in qualifying. Kane is already ahead of him for goals scored in the finals.
Great post. I think Kane is very very good. Certainly up there with those of the last 10 years. I think GPG is a good metric to measure strikers. 1 in 2 has been a benchmark for as long as I can remember. Some now judge 1 in 3 as good. My theory about strikers more recently having a different job is in part based on what you say. They have to be much more. I also think as a coaching community globally, guided by national and club philosophies, we have let down those natural goalscorers we still produce. That has been a gradual decline over the last 15 years or so in my opinion. Remember the kids at school and in grassroots who could score 60 goals a season? They still exist but we tend not to encourage that as coaches. By that I mean we dont spend time honing further what is a natural ability. There are players who can just finish first time without thinking, it is a gift. As coaches we do loads of work on all aspects of the game but rarely 1 to 1 with those natural finishers. It is almost frowned upon if we treat the lad scoring all the goals to some specialist coaching. We could do plenty around movement, delay, body position etc. Subtle things to bring the best out of their talent. Like you say instead we want them to press hard, drop deep, bring the midfield into play, defend corners. We have blunted them to an extent I think. It is the modern game. I think if you look at eras this is borne out to an extent. The best GPG stats are from distant past. The best british player is Jimmy McGory from celtic post ww2. He was 400 in 400. Probably the most recent player that got those sort of stats is Gerd Muller. Eusabio, Pele etc all got close as well. Messi and Ronaldo not so close. I mentioned that I think real finishing is a just a natural instinctive thing. I remember doing one of my coaching badges and having a major argument with quite a senior FA coaching instructor who claimed there was no such thing as natural talent. I was really angry about it and came back to the next session with a slideshow (i know, pathetic) of sportspeople I felt had natural talent. Mr FA was not convinced at all. My point is this comes through in how we are taught to coach, and it is a worldwide issue, not just a uk one. I think the very best coaches look beyond this, like Pep, who can see natural talent and nurture that in his coaching. They are getting fewer though and I think it is why we might see less and less of these goal machines. I hope Haaland reverses the trend a bit, wouldnt be a bad thing at all, for us coaches at least.
Not sure if it was just attitude or the fact he went to utd who tried to change him into an attacking midfielder
Also part of it, Ferguson completely changed him. He was a strong aggressive bully of a striker at 17 and Ferguson changed that as he didn't need it at Utd! Still think for England he was on the beach come the tournament.
Yet I think Messi was almost as good as Ronaldo!! Rooney was a top player but also had to work much harder to stay fit than Ronaldo and Messi. His natural body shape isn’t exactly built for football.
