Harry Kane is too good to be measured by medals and trophies | Harry Kane

wThe hat is the perfect way to Harry Kane To become Tottenham’s record goalscorer? It should be a penalty, against Arsenal, in stoppage time, to win the North London derby on Sunday. A penalty kick he won with his “intelligence”. There was contact when Gabriel Magalhaes nudged him slightly in the back. He had every right to go down.

Surrounded by Craig Pawson, he is forced into the impossible situation of trying to appear authoritative while walking backwards to evade Granit Xhaka yelling at him. By this time, William Saliba shoveled into the penalty area. Paul Tierney looks at his monitor at Stockley Park. Check complete. Peter Walton sits at his desk, agreeing it was the right decision. AFTV is falling apart.

Thank goodness Amy Martinez left Arsenal almost two-and-a-half years ago or it would be another 25 minutes before Kane settled himself, took a few steps back, fumbled his feet, sprinted and put the ball high into Aaron Ramsdale’s outstretched right hand. pure ripples. Martin Tyler has the perfect thing ready to go. Peter Drury blows “Cosmic Chasmic Kane” to an international audience.

Tottenham Hotspur stadium erupted. 2-1. Two targets Kane, who exorcises evil spirits Qatar ghostsdampened his rivals’ title ambitions, lifted Tottenham into the top four and overtook Jimmy Greaves as the club’s record goalscorer.

The least biased forecaster would suggest that the above is optimistic at best. Arsenal play with a delightful fluidity that Spurs fans can only dream of at the moment. No matter how this season turns out to be, Mikel Arteta has proven many wrong. Credit to those who trusted the process, who kept their faith while honoring Blair Witch’s lamp – I didn’t.

When the only criticism is that you jump a little too much (unlike Klopp… no; Pep… no; Conte, Simeone – you get the idea) you probably win. Five points is at the top of the Premier League, but a manager who doesn’t treat the dotted lines in the technical area like an electric fence seems like a reasonable deal.

Even if Kane can’t do it on Sunday, he will soon break Graves’ all-time record of 266 in 379 games. It came in at 265 in 412. Comparisons between generations aren’t necessarily helpful. The footballing world once again tried to locate Pele in the pantheon of greats even though it had hardly seen him play.

To me, Graves was one half of a great TV acting double, but to those who saw him on the air, he was something else. “The great Jimmy Graves. I’ve never seen anyone so fast.” So says David Rushden, who watched it from the terraces of White Hart Lane as a young man in the 1960s. “He was never tackled. He was on muddy pitches with a muddy ball and everyone was splattered with mud but his pants were always clean.

“He just had an eye for goal. The goals he scored out of nowhere were unbelievable. He’s my favourite.” thanks Dad.

Anyone who watched Greavsie’s excellent documentary or who went down a YouTube wormhole in the 1960s will likely conclude that Greaves is the most natural football player. Hundreds of side decorations. Dribbling with elegance, grace and poise, the keeper sits down with a slight wiggle before rolling it home.

It is an exaggeration to say that football is innate to some (Messi) while others have to work at it (Ronaldo). All of these guys are ridiculously good, and they all train every single day. But there’s no questioning Kane’s obsessive work to reach elite levels.

It’s also deceptively good. Even after all these years of watching him, he’s faster, more skilled, and cunning than many would think. That touch and hit at Crystal Palace Last week summed it up. We now realize it’s not a creator that Graves was, pocketing it and banging it into the corner for Son Heung-min.

But it can frustrate Kane – he’s always trying to kill the ball, sometimes slowing the game down in the process. This again is where these comparisons fall. It’s hard to find YouTube compilations of Graves’ worst blunders or games where he got it wrong.

Within two months, Kane could become England’s record goalscorer. This summer he turns 30, and will likely be at the final crossroads of his career. to stick or warp. Gossip columns in this transfer window have him linked with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. There won’t be a lot of opportunities to advance, Manchester City’s door closed a few months ago.

If football had a soul, there would be at least one moment when Kane could have fun rather than endure walking around the pitch applauding his fans, cup in one hand, medal in the other. There were plenty of slow-motion montages of him looking sad, processing what might have been just minutes after the final whistle.

Whether that’s true or not, Graves has been defined – at least on the outside – by what he hasn’t won and the same could easily happen with the England captain. Even if he leaves Tottenham and gets a Bundesliga league or two, Kane has done enough to come back and work in the halls with Gary Mabbott and Ledley King when he has his boots off. Maybe it’s time to go out and invest in a closet or at least a shelf.

Somehow it would be nice to stay, this trophy would be even sweeter in a Spurs shirt. Champions League this year? Add the euro then? He can score the winning penalty against France. Unlikely perhaps, but in 2011 when Kane was on loan at Leyton Orient his record-breaking exploits seemed unlikely as well. It’s good to dream.

Perhaps this is an act of preservation for football fans who support teams that don’t win things to suggest that medals and trophies don’t matter after all. It is about much more than that.