Harry Kane tells Tottenham to toughen up after ‘gutting’ finish sees them fall behind Arsenal

1/18
Tom Collomosse16 May 2016

Harry Kane has urged Tottenham to toughen up for next season after they finished behind Arsenal yet again.

Spurs ended the campaign a point behind their north London rivals after they were crushed 5-1 at relegated Newcastle — the worst defeat in Mauricio Pochettino’s two years as manager. It is 21 years since they concluded the campaign above the Gunners.

Kane’s 25 goals made him the Premier League’s top scorer but the forward was in no mood to celebrate. He admitted that when Spurs exited the race for the title after their 2-2 draw at Chelsea on May 2, they had lacked the mental strength to secure second place.

Kane said: “Probably when we didn’t have a chance of winning the league, the mentality wasn’t there. It leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths over the summer.

“The performance at Newcastle was one of the worst I’ve ever been involved in it and all we can do is apologise to the fans. To concede three goals after they had gone down to 10 men was unacceptable.

“We know how much finishing above Arsenal means to the fans and the club. When people think they’ve had a bad season and we’ve had a good one, and yet they still finish above us, it hurts.

“We needed to finish the season strongly and two points from the last four games is unacceptable considering how we played during the rest of the season.

“It probably started from the 1-1 draw with West Brom last month. It’s hard to put your finger on why. Days like Newcastle show there is still a lot more work to be done.

“We haven’t cracked it yet. We’re still learning, we’ve still got to work hard, we’ve still got to improve.”

Tottenham 2015/16 season Player Ratings

1/23

Spurs needed only a draw to ensure they would finish second behind champions Leicester but they performed very poorly and were 2-0 down at half-time yesterday, with Georginio Wijnaldum and Aleksandar Mitrovic on target for the home side.

Erik Lamela halved the deficit and Mitrovic was then sent off for a dreadful challenge on Kyle Walker but Spurs lost their discipline chasing an equaliser and Newcastle ran away with it.

Wijnaldum scored from the penalty spot — after Jan Vertonghen had brought down Moussa Sissoko — before late goals from substitute Rolando Aarons and Daryl Janmaat completed the humiliation.

Despite the anguish in Newcastle, Spurs can still reflect that they will play Champions League football next season for only the second time in their history. Third place means they will enter the competition at the group stage, with the guarantee of at least six matches in Europe’s main club competition. Kane said: “You have to look at the bigger picture, or try to.

“If someone had offered us automatic Champions League qualification at the start of the season, we would have definitely taken it. It’s just a shame, the way it ended. We wanted to be the ones lifting the league title but we’ve got to use it as motivation for next season. We will have to play a long season at the top level if we want to fight for the title again.

“We have to learn from the last four weeks, learn about finishing teams off and finishing the season off well.

“Everything is in place for us to do well and we have to try to stay positive — the players, the fans, the club — because we are moving in the right direction.”

On winning the golden boot for scoring the most goals in the top flight, Kane said: “It is a personal achievement and I’m proud of it but if I’d had a choice between winning the golden boot and the team winning at Newcastle, I’d rather have won at Newcastle.

“I’m gutted we haven’t finished the season strongly.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in