Pochettino: Harry Kane can be Tottenham’s Totti

Harry Kane had a pretty good week for Tottenham Hotspur, so naturally the media narrative is centered around his future. Specifically, would there ever be a scenario where Kane, Europe’s leading scorer in 2017 and the current leader for his third consecutive Premier League Golden Boot, could depart Tottenham for another club?

Mauricio Pochettino declined to get sucked into speculation in a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s league tie against Swansea City, calling Kane “priceless.”

“I think Harry doesn't have a price. We want him here. I think we can talk about many things, but at the end it's talk for talk, because it's impossible to put a price. He's out of the market.

“But nothing's changed. He was a superstar three years ago, one year ago, six months ago, one week ago, always we've treated him like a superstar. If you make the exercise to see all my interviews or how we trusted in him from day one here, it's because we feel the potential. Now he deserves full credit for all he's achieved. Now, for me he was always a superstar, not now because he achieved an amazing record.

“If someone pays £100m, but no-one offers £100m he's priceless, no? He has no price, you know? We need to talk about reality. The reality is that Liverpool will pay -- if I don't know if it's true because I didn't see -- £75m [for Virgil Van Dijk]. If you want a player and a club asks for a price and you pay it, that's it.”

With every new achievement, the media narrative about Kane eventually departing Tottenham for a bigger club (and a bigger challenge) rears its ugly head again. Alan Shearer, the legendary English striker whose calendar year scoring record Kane just eclipsed, recently suggested that Kane could be a one-club man like Francesco Totti at Roma, or Ryan Giggs at Manchester United. When asked about Shearer’s comment, Poch seemed to think that Kane staying at Spurs his entire career could very well be a possibility.

“Yes, I think [Shearer] will know better than me because he's English and the mentality, he will know better about the English mentality. Maybe it's possible that he can be this way, like Totti and Roma. Of course, we'd be more than happy, us and the fans, because Harry is a fantastic player and professional. Yes, why not?”

Once again, there’s no reason to think that Harry Kane is unhappy or that he even wants to leave Tottenham Hotspur, but no matter what he or Mauricio Pochettino says in a press conference, that’s never going to be enough to quash the rumors. The only way to prove to everyone that he can be Tottenham’s Totti, is by simply becoming Tottenham’s Totti.