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Harry Kane acknowledged Tottenham have failed to deliver trophies in recent years, but believes Antonio Conte and the new signings will help create “something special” in north London.
Spurs have not won a major trophy since their EFL Cup success back in 2008, though they pipped fierce rivals Arsenal to Champions League qualification in the 2021-22 season.
A run of five goals in the final five league games from Kane guided Tottenham into Europe, the England international finishing the top-flight campaign with 17 goals.
That marked Kane’s joint-lowest tally in the Premier League in his eight seasons as a regular, alongside 2018-19, and was down on the 23 goals registered in 2020-21.
But after Conte bolstered his squad with five new signings – Fraser Forster, Yves Bissouma, Ivan Perisic, Richarlison and loanee Clement Lenglet – Kane insists Spurs are on the brink of success.
Asked about his aims for the upcoming season, Kane told Sky Sports: “Just to have another good year, another consistent year to help the team as much as possible, try to score as many goals as I can.
“From a team point of view, [the aim] is always to win trophies. There’s a good buzz around the club at the moment but you’ve got to go out there and perform and show what you can do when it’s crunch time.
“We haven’t quite done that over years – with this manager, with this squad, we can really push on and try and do something special.”
Conte’s side opened their pre-season campaign with a 6-3 victory over a select K League XI before sharing the spoils against Sevilla with a 1-1 draw in Japan.
New arrival Richarlison has featured in both those games and is expected to offer stern competition for attacking trio Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Kane.
But Son sees the competition with the “quality” Richarlison, who scored (10) and assisted (five) more Premier League goals than any other Everton player in the 2021-22 season, as a positive.
“Competition is always good. You improve yourself and also your team-mates,” he told reporters after the Sevilla friendly.
“We can rotate, or we can have a different style of football, or we can have different movements.
“Adding players like Richy is incredible. He’s a quality player so I’m really enjoying that. I’ve been with him only four days but he’s become like a really close friend.”
Son will hope for another productive season in front of goal, having shared the Premier League Golden Boot award with Mohamed Salah last season (both scoring 23 goals each).
But the focus will be on how Kane starts the season, having failed to score in his first eight Premier League games of the last term amid uncertainty over whether he would join Manchester City.
“We talked about this last season – Harry didn’t score at the start of the season but how many goals did he finish with?” Son added.
“Goals for Harry, I think there is no doubt. We don’t have to worry about him scoring goals because he is, for me, the best partner, the best striker in the world still. He’s working hard and he’s an unselfish player.”
