Harry Kane: void the season if not completed by July 1

In case you missed it, Harry Kane recently did an Instagram Live video with Jaime Redknapp where he answered a lot of questions about his own recovery from injury, football in general, and his future. The headlines from that interview were all about his comments regarding whether he’s planning on staying at Tottenham Hotspur or if he’d consider leaving Spurs to seek trophies elsewhere, but there was another really interesting bit in there that got glossed over in the IS HARRY LEAVING talk.

Specifically, Kane was asked what his thoughts were on the current 2019-20 season and whether he thinks the season should continue in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. His answer might actually surprise you — he says that if it goes beyond the end of June, it should probably just be voided entirely.

“I know the Premier League will do everything it can to finish the season. There needs to be a point where enough is enough. Probably the limit for me is the end of June.”

Kane’s comments show what the Independent calls a rising sentiment from various corners of the Premier League for voiding or ending the season, rather than constantly pushing it back so that it dovetails with the start of the 2020-21 season. The league is naturally against that, as they would need to repay £765m to broadcasters for the unaired/cancelled matches, not to mention weather a rash of lawsuits from various clubs who would be affected by the lack of promotion and relegation, Champions League qualification, and prize money for final placement in the table.

Kane’s opinion is his own, but the thought is that prominent players like him speaking out could represent a non-trivial hidden view that could increase the longer football goes without resuming, and it’s looking more and more like it will be gone for a long time. Voiding the season would mean just that — wiping away everything that happened in 2019-20 and pretending it never happened. No win-loss records would count for historical purposes, there’d be no promotion or relegation. Liverpool would not win the title, Norwich would not be relegated.

The implication is that Kane would be ok with vacating all 17 goals he’s scored this season if the season is voided — which is notable considering how much he loves goals, and his relentless pursuit of Tottenham and Premier League goal scoring records. Just because Harry Kane says it doesn’t mean he’s speaking it into being, and the likelihood is that the Premier League will continue to kick the Finish The Season can down the road as long as they can before making a decision. But if Harry Kane is one of the players who’d be open to eventually voiding the season if it drags on too long, it makes you wonder how many other players and clubs also feel this way, and are just keeping silent.