Antonio Conte has said Harry Kane is “totally involved in the Tottenham project” despite a modest start to the season. Kane was linked with a pre-season move to Manchester City but the deal fell through. Many pundits felt his failure to join the Premier League champions has contributed to Kane’s poor form in the early stages of the campaign – although England’s agonising penalty shoot-out loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley may have played a part as well.
England captain Kane found goals hard to come by when Nuno Espirito Santo, sacked in November and replaced by Conte, was in charge of Tottenham and even now the striker has scored just nine goals in all competitions this season.
However, he scored a second Premier League goal of the campaign against Liverpool last weekend and the 28-year-old will aim to build on that performance when Spurs are at home to London rivals Crystal Palace today. Even so, Kane’s returns have been a long way off last season’s 23 goals and 14 assists in the Premier League.
“Harry has showed me great availability and showed me (he is) totally involved in the Tottenham project,” Conte said on Friday. “I see him every day and I see that he is happy,” the Italian added. He leads in the training ground, he leads in the dressing room and he leads during the training sessions in a fantastic way. I am happy for what I am seeing every day.”
Meanwhile, Conte said managers put forward their concerns on fixture congestion in Thursday’s meeting with the league but it felt like they were talking to a wall.
Both players and managers have been up in arms over player welfare with many teams playing twice in three days after Christmas while Covid-19 outbreaks have forced the Premier League to postpone games creating a fixture pile-up.
The Premier League held a meeting with club managers and captains to discuss the match congestion but held firm on maintaining the fixture schedule. “I have to be honest, I think that it was a meeting (where) we tried to speak. Some coaches tried to speak to ask about a solution but I think everything was decided,” Conte said. “Yesterday, it was a wall. For this reason I prefer I don’t go into the discussion.”
When asked if the meeting was a waste of time, Conte said: “I think so. When you have a wall in front of you – you can speak and ask for what you want – but every decision was (already) taken.”