"Mark my words" Sky Sports pundit warning to Kane over Mourinho issue

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has warned Harry Kane that he may have to move on as Jose Mourinho’s style of play may not suit him in the long run.

The 26-year-old was sidelined in January after surgery on his hamstring, but prior to that, he had bagged 17 goals in 25 appearances.

Five of those goals came in nine league games after Mourinho’s arrival, and so there is the form to suggest that Kane can continue his prolific goalscoring under the current Spurs boss.

However, Merson believes that the Portuguese tactician will make adjustments ahead of next season to tighten things up and that in turn could have a negative impact on Kane’s goalscoring and influence upfront.

“Will Kane get six or seven chances a game playing the way Jose Mourinho does? I don’t think so. For me that’s what he needs to weigh up,” he wrote in his Sky Sports column. “Kane will be looking at Mourinho’s history, and mark my words, next year, or whenever football begins again, Mourinho’s playing style will be different.

“I don’t think Kane will want to be in a team where he is getting 10 goals a season, even if Spurs are further up the league. Tottenham was perfect for Kane under Mauricio Pochettino; they played nice, free-flowing attacking football, they were nice to watch, but they didn’t win anything.”

Merson went on to insist that the money and the benefits off the pitch shouldn’t matter to Kane at this stage, and his focus should be on where he will be most likely to now enjoy success and win trophies.

Further, on an individual level, if he is chasing records and wants to become the top Premier League goalscorer of all-time, Merson goes back to his point above about that being unlikely with Mourinho’s style of play.

As noted by Sky Sports, Kane seemingly sparked all the discussion over his future with comments he made at the weekend, where he suggested that he could consider an exit if he felt as though Tottenham weren’t moving in the right direction to be competitive.

Merson certainly isn’t the first pundit to discuss a possible exit this week, but it remains to be seen if Spurs can convince their talismanic captain to remain next season and lead their charge for trophies in Mourinho’s first full campaign at the helm.