Tottenham: Harry Kane Back in Training, Ready for Inter Milan and Champions League
A number of Tottenham’s regular first-team members have returned to get ready for Spurs’ final pre-season friendly before the start of the Premier League.
With Tottenham preparing for their final pre-season friendly against Inter Milan in two days time, a familiar face has returned to training in the form of Harry Kane. The Premier League’s reigning Golden Boot winner with 25 goals.
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Speaking to Spurs’ official website, the 23-year-old striker talked about his return to Hotspur Way following an extended break, his thoughts on Tottenham’s friendly in Norway and playing in the Champions League.
The last time that Harry Kane was on the pitch was last month in the 2016 European Championship when Iceland stunned England.
Since then, the center-forward has just been resting up (which he seriously needed) after a very long and busy two-year period where Kane rarely had a break to speak of.
But it seems that some time off (a few weeks) has helped re-energize the 23-year-old and he’s ready to get back to work.
“I’m good! I’ve had a good few weeks’ rest – as much as I could do – and now I’m back, training hard and getting ready,” Kane said.
“Now it’s just about getting a match under my belt on Friday and, like I said, getting ready for the start of the season.”
It’s not just Harry Kane who has returned to training, Mauricio Pochettino should be expecting a fully healthy squad before their Friday friendly in Norway with a couple of absentees with Jan Vertonghen still nursing an injury and Son Heung-Min away for the Olympics.
And the time away has made each player excited to return and play, Kane included.
“Yes, exactly. Some of us haven’t played too much football lately and we’re looking forward to getting started with the game on Friday and getting back into the swing of things,” Harry Kane continued.
“It obviously feels like a while since I last played a game but it’s exciting times now, we’ve got a good week of training ahead with the team and now that everyone’s back from Australia we’re looking forward to the game in Norway. I can’t wait to get out there and start playing again.”
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Friday’s friendly against Inter Milan will mark Tottenham’s third high-profile pre-season match this summer. And the first two proved to be very valuable for Spurs’ academy players.
For Harry Kane, he believes that Inter will prove a good test just before Tottenham begins their new campaign on August 13th.
“They are a great side and we’ll come up against a lot of great teams this season so it’s good to prepare ourselves against the best.”
“Inter Milan are definitely one team that are going to be difficult to play against so we want to go there and try to play our game, express ourselves and enjoy it.”
After finishing third last season and securing automatic qualification into the Champions League, Tottenham’s goal of being able to compete in Europe’s elite club competition has been achieved. But their new goal now, is to advance as far as they could possibly go.
“It’s what the club has always been aiming for and that was the aim at the start of last season, to get into the Champions League, and we managed that.”
“It isn’t just about participating in the Champions League, though, we want to progress, do as well as we can, keep getting better and hopefully go as far as we can in the competition.”
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The only thing that will eventually hinder Tottenham’s title challenge this upcoming season is the Champions League. And vice versa with the Premiership and a top-four finish potentially getting in Spurs way if they want to make it into the knockout stage and beyond in Europe.
There needs to be a fine balance with regards to squad selection and consistent play.
“It’ll be a challenge. We’ll be playing better teams and they’re tougher games so it maybe takes a little bit more out of you but that’s part of it.”
“If you want to be a top team you have to be able to cope with that and deal with it so we’ll have to manage that throughout the season. The manager is very good at things like that, so we’ve just got to prepare well and see how we get on. It’s going to be an exciting season.”