Harry Kane has said he would have gladly forfeited winning the Premier League's Golden Boot if it had meant that Tottenham Hotspur finished second in the table and ended a season perched above Arsenal for the first time in 21 years.
The Spurs and England striker beat Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Leicester City's Jamie Vardy to the award after scoring 25 goals in 28 appearances for Mauricio Pochettino's side.
Even so, it provided little consolation in the wake of his team’s end-of-season collapse, emphasised by Tottenham’s 5-1 capitulation at already relegated Newcastle United on Sunday.
Despite being badly out of sorts ever since missing out on the title to Leicester, Spurs required only a point at St James’ Park to secure second position ahead of their North London rivals.
“I think that’s probably the worst performance I’ve ever been involved with,” said Kane. “We still had a lot to play for, so it’s hard to put a finger on what went wrong. We just haven’t been good enough in the last few games - it’s not just Newcastle, we should never have lost to Southampton either. It probably started from drawing the West Brom game, but it’s hard to say exactly what went wrong.
“It would have been nicer to have won the award [GOLDEN BOOT]on a better day, that’s for sure. Look, it’s a personal achievement, and it’s something I’m proud of, but if I had the choice between winning today or having the Golden Boot, I’d rather have won today. For me, it’s a little bit of a good feeling, but overall I’m gutted that we haven’t finished the season off strong.”
Or bettered Arsenal for the first time since 1995. “That definitely makes it harder because we know how much it means to the fans and how much it means to the club,” said Kane. “When people think Arsenal had a bad season and we’ve had a good one, yet they still finish above us, it hurts.
“We just haven’t been good enough. We needed to finish the season off strong, but I think that’s two points from the last four games and that’s unacceptable considering how we played the rest of the season. All we can do is apologise to the fans. We have to stick together through tough times - and we’re still playing Champions League football.”
Positives
The prospect of potential trips to Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid et al next season certainly helps anaesthetise the pain of Tottenham’s surrender. “What’s just happened hurts, and it’ll leave a bad taste in the mouth over the summer,” said Kane. “But in hindsight, you’ve got to try to look at the bigger picture. If someone had offered us automatic Champions League at the start of the season, we would definitely have taken it. It’s just a shame the way it ended.”
It seems Pochettino’s players could never quite cope with the disappointment of losing out to Leicester for English football’s biggest prize but now the challenge is to win the title next season. “It hurts,” said Kane. “We’re professionals, and we wanted it to be us lifting the league. We have to use that as motivation for next year. It’s obviously going to be another tough season. It’ll be a long old year, with top teams, but we have to cope with that at the top level if we want to be fighting for the Premier League again.
“We have to use days like this - and the whole of the last four weeks - as motivation. We have to learn from it. We have to learn how to finish teams off, and finish the season off as well. Because if we had been still in the title run in and this had happened at Newcastle, we’d have been even more gutted. If it had come down to the last day, and something like this happened, it would be even more hurtful. We just have to learn from it.
“Games like Newcastle, and the last few weeks, show there’s still a lot of work to do. We haven’t cracked it yet. We’re still learning, we still have to work hard and we still have to improve.
“But everything’s in place so we all have to try to stay positive - us, the fans, the club - because we’re moving in the right direction.”
Retirement
Meanwhile Mikel Arteta has announced his intention to retire after coming to the painful realisation that he no longer merits his place at the highest level. The Arsenal captain said it was a "dream" to bow out at the top and he will now consider a future in coaching.
The 34-year-old has offers from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur to take his first steps as a coach and he said that Arsenal - his club of the past five years - had “left the door very open“. Arteta added: “I may have to make a decision.“
City made a move for him weeks ago, with Pep Guardiola, their incoming manager, having identified a role for him on the staff. Arteta also has a close friendship with Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham manager, having previously played with him at Paris Saint-Germain. Pochettino, however, believes it would be problematic for Arteta to cross the north London divide.
“It is very hard to stop but I wanted to leave it. I wanted to decide, and I thought for the last few months that I wasn‘t good enough to represent this club on the pitch,“ Arteta said. “You have to accept it. It has been a long time for me to be playing football and I didn‘t want to cheat them or anyone. It is time. I want to leave it like this and we will see what happens.”
Guardian services
