Eamon Dunphy: 'Incredible Harry Kane can come back to haunt Arsenal'

Kane is having the season of his life at Bayern Munich and the former Spurs striker will certainly have no fear of the Gunners ahead of Tuesday's Champions League clash

He may well finish the season — yet another one — without a medal, but Harry Kane is having the year of his life.

Indeed, there’s a strong argument that it’s the greatest campaign ever by an Englishman outside of English football.

Kane has scored a remarkable 31 goals in 27 Bundesliga games for Bayern Munich. In all competitions, the tally is 37 from 36 matches. To have an average of more than a goal a game is incredible.

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It’s not as if Bayern are at the height of their powers, either. This has been their worst domestic season in a long, long time.

They are a whopping 13 points behind leaders Bayern Leverkusen. Unless Xabi Alonso’s men do a Devon Loch, the Bavarians will finish well adrift and it’s too easy to put forward the view that Bayern strikers always put up big tallies, pointing to Robert Lewandowski’s return.

Remember how Sadio Mane struggled when he moved there from Liverpool? He only managed seven goals in 25 Bundesliga games and was offloaded after just one season.

Claudio Pizarro was regarded as decent and Bayern rated him highly enough to buy him twice, but his biggest return in the Bundesliga was just 15 goals.

Only one Englishman has won the Ballon D’Or when not playing in England. For good measure, Kevin Keegan did it twice.

He topped the poll in 1978 and 1979 when with Hamburg, and he was actually second in 1977 too — his final season at Liverpool.

Keegan was obsessed with football from a young age, particularly with becoming a professional goalkeeper. But his lack of height — he stopped growing at 5’7” — scuppered that dream.

Keegan wasn’t the most skilful of players when he moved outfield but few could match his dogged determination. He went on trial to Doncaster Rovers but was dismissed with two words that were familiar to him — “too small”.

But he got a chance with Fourth Division Scunthorpe United and Keegan was determined to grab it.

Every day, after training, he’d grab a set of dumbbells and run up the steps of the stand again and again, building his
strength.

His ratio of a goal every seven games for Scunthorpe was hardly spectacular, but Bill Shankly had the keenest of eyes and brought Keegan to Liverpool. We know what happened next.

Kane has a real chance of matching Keegan by winning the Ballon D’Or when in Germany — especially if England win the European Championships — and he also came up the hard way.

When you look at Kane now, it’s hard to believe that there were plenty at Tottenham, as well as Arsenal, who felt that he wouldn’t make it.

In January 2012, Kane made his way across London for a loan spell at a club that couldn’t be more different from glamorous Spurs.

Millwall was his destination and it was there he met David Forde, the Galway man who used to play in goal for Ireland.

Forde came up the hard way too. Counting loan moves, he’d switched clubs 10 times and returned to the League of Ireland on three occasions after moves to the UK didn’t work out.

But he was always a grafter, and that appetite for hard work helped him make his competitive debut for Ireland at 33.

Day after day, Forde volunteered for extra training and a face that has become very familiar kept him company.

Kane is no overnight success. As well as Millwall, he went on loan to Leicester City, Norwich City and Leyton Orient.

Before November 2014 when he forced his way into the Spurs team, he’d played just 63 minutes of Premier League football that season. But his drive to improve himself has taken him a long way.

That was something that became apparent to Forde when they worked together on the training ground, as Kane would always put in extra shooting practice.

“I’ve always felt that if you can play at Millwall, you can play anywhere,’’ said Forde.

“I’d like to think that it was a good grounding for him and a great experience.

“It toughened him up. It’s great to see Harry scoring for Tottenham.

Harry was top drawer. He banged in goals for us. He’s got a lot of power.

“He’s got a heck of a strike on him. That’s one thing I will remember — when he gets in front of goal he’s got some power behind his shot.”

Kane left Spurs as the third highest goalscorer in the history of the Premier League.

He was such a powerhouse that we should remember Pep Guardiola made four separate bids to bring him to Manchester City.

Kane will be 31 in July and it is hard to believe that a player of his ability still hasn’t won a medal at such an advanced age.

Bayern are still alive in the Champions League, facing Arsenal next week in the first leg of the quarter-finals.

Kane will certainly have no fear of the Gunners.

He was let go by Arsenal’s academy so some felt he maybe harboured a grudge...his tally of 14 goals in 17 Premier League games against Arsenal shows that he loved playing against them.

With Kane, Bayern have a chance.

Arsenal have two top class centre-halves in William Saliba and Gabriel but Kane will give them plenty to think about.

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