Harry Kane backs Harry Winks to make England breakthrough
Mauricio Pochettino says it's getting difficult to come up with new ways to describe how valuable Harry Kane is for Spurs. Harry Kane revels in his September form as he netted his 12th and 13th goals of the month in Spurs' victory at Huddersfield. Another Harry Kane brace steered Spurs past Huddersfield as they maintained their 100% away record this season. Another Harry Kane brace steered Spurs past Huddersfield as they maintained their 100% away record this season. Huddersfield boss David Wagner admits that his side could not match or contain Tottenham's attacking prowess.
Harry Kane has encouraged Harry Winks to remain patient and maintain his form for Tottenham as the 21-year-old bids to play his way into contention for his first senior England call-up.
Winks said during the summer that he "would love to play for England" this year, but he has had to settle for a place in the Under-21 squad during this international break.
Winks made 11 starts in all competitions last season, including two in the Champions League, but his breakthrough campaign was cut short in April when he suffered ankle ligament damage in an unfortunate fall against Burnley. The fit-again midfielder has ruled out switching allegiance, though, and says he is ready to kick-on for club and country this season after scoring in Spurs' 3-2 friendly defeat to Roma on Tuesday.
"I've got Spanish grandparents and I've got a connection with Spain. Obviously I have goals and ambitions that I'd love to achieve this year. Of course I'd love to play for England this year, but that's not something I'm saying I'm going to set myself to do.
"I'm just going to take it step by step in getting into the team. The most important thing is to take it game by game.
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Winks' fitness may have undermined his chances of getting a call from Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate: the youngster has only recently made a full recovery from the ankle ligament injury he sustained in April, with his first start of the season coming on Sept. 19.
However, Mauricio Pochettino has described him as "the perfect midfielder", and Winks has played throughout Spurs' 3-0 and 4-0 victories away against APOEL Nicosia and Huddersfield respectively in the past week.
"Harry's done great," said Kane. "He's waited patiently for his chance. He's just got to keep doing what he's doing, keeping his head down.
"He had a great game in midweek in the Champions League, he had a great game on Saturday. For him, he's just got to stay focused, not think about it too much, just concentrate on his job, and what'll happen will happen.
"[Winks is] a great player. On the ball, technically he's fantastic. He reads the game very well, he can drive past players.
"It isn't my decision, it's [Southgate's] decision. But all he's got to do is do well for us and then do well for the Under-21s in this camp, and that's all he can do."
Kane links up with his England colleagues while in fine form himself. Having failed to score in August, he has struck 13 times for club and country in September, most recently registering twice at Huddersfield on Saturday. His fifth and sixth Premier League goals of the season have left him level with Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Chelsea's Alvaro Morata in the top scorers' chart just one behind the leader, Romelu Lukaku of Manchester United.
Kane, right, believes Winks has what it takes to make an impact at the international level.
Having won the Golden Boot in each of the last two years, Kane is attempting to become only the third Premier League player to take the prize for a third consecutive season, after Alan Shearer (1995-97) and Thierry Henry (2004-06). However, he feels the competition is only getting stronger and that this will be the toughest of the three campaigns in that regard.
"Definitely. The next season's always the toughest season, and especially as the strikers have all started well this year," he said.
"It's been a good month for me. As a striker sometimes you go through patches like this. I said even in August that sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn't. September's been one of those months where everything's kind of gone my way so I'm sad to see it end really!
"I just feel confident. I feel any chance I get in and around the box I'm going to score, or definitely work the keeper. It's great, especially to score so early on in games -- it helps.
"It's a pleasure to play in this team. I'm here to put most of the chances away but when you've got Dele [Alli] and Christian [Eriksen], and you've got Ben [Davies] and Tripps [Kieran Trippier] in the wide areas, when you've got guys backing it up from the back, it all helps.
"I'm a little disappointed not to go on and get another hat-trick [at Huddersfield] but it's a great result. As a team, we said we wanted to come out and really put the energy in, get an early goal, and it worked out perfectly really.
"The last time we went into an international break we drew to Burnley, conceding a last-minute goal, and it hurts. It hurts to go away -- you're thinking about it for a couple of weeks -- so it's always nice to win and finish off what's been a good month for us."
Dan is ESPN FC's Tottenham correspondent. Follow him on Twitter: @Dan_KP.
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