Harry Kane is at a crossroads in his career, with the 30-year-old deciding this summer whether to stick or twist when it comes to his Tottenham career.
The England captain is in the final year of his current contract in North London, and Bayern Munich have made efforts to lure him to the Bundesliga. Thomas Tuchel's side have so far seen their interest rebuffed, but there could be more twists to come with the new Premier League season a fortnight away.
Kane may ultimately decide the next phase of his career should take place outside England as he chases an elusive first league title of a career which remains impressive on a personal level. When he makes the decision, he may be tempted to look back at the last season he spent outside Spurs' first team, a decade ago, when he learned valuable lessons which helped him rise to the top.
Long before Kane became the main man for club and country, breaking Jimmy Greaves' goal record for Spurs, he started out doing the same thing as many academy talents. He was shipped out on loan on four occasions, with varied results.
First came the more impressive stints, at Leyton Orient and Millwall, both before Kane made his Premier League debut. After being handed his first league minutes by Andre Villas-Boas in August 2012, a season-long loan to Norwich was designed to give him more top-flight experience, but things didn't work out as planned.
The injury-impacted Canaries stint was cut short after five games and no goals, and he spent the second half of the campaign failing to help Leicester secure promotion from the Championship. Speaking years later, though, the striker explained how those tough months helped energise him.
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PA)"Going into Norwich at 19 it was just about taking another step," Kane told The ITV Football Show in 2020. “Proving I can play in the Premier League, proving I can score in the Premier League, but I didn’t really look at it as my last chance.
"Whenever I went on loan it was always in my mind to come back and play for Spurs. Obviously that [Norwich] loan didn’t go great - I got an injury quite early on and when I came back I couldn’t get in the team, so I ended up going to Leicester in the same year for six months and the same thing - I couldn’t get into the team and I was on the bench quite a lot.
“That was probably the time in my career where it was the hardest - I was 19 and I was thinking ‘if I can’t play for Norwich or for Leicester, even in the Championship at the time, how I am going to then get back and play for Tottenham?”
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Julian Finney/Getty Images)Kane didn't score a single goal in his five Norwich outings, with a metatarsal injury denting his progress. At Leicester, meanwhile, he joined with the Foxes sat fifth in the table and they were unable to convert that into promotion, losing to Watford in a dramatic play-off semi-final.
Villas-Boas had discussed another loan with Kane the next season, but the striker was having none of it. "I said to him I want to stay and fight for my place, I believe that I’m good enough," he said.
“So I did, I played now and then for six months and I was still there and then Tim Sherwood got the job and I got a chance. Then Mauricio (Pochettino) came in the summer after and it went from there.
“But I think sticking to my guns and kind of saying I want to stay and I want to fight for my place was a big turning point in my career,” he added. "I just wanted my chance - I'd scored for England at every level, scored in League One, Championship, I was just like 'give me a good opportunity' and thankfully it worked out."
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AFP/Getty Images)Kane's unhappiness on loan didn't go unnoticed. However, his willingness to fight the following season clearly paid dividends, with a goal on his first Premier League start under Sherwood and two more in the next two games.
“There’s no doubt that Harry suffered disappointments whilst on loan at various Clubs,” former Spurs coach Chris Ramsey said in 2021. “But they were the most important for him, they spurred him on to be even more successful.
"He has always been eager to learn and wanted to do more. There were times at Norwich and Leicester where he was visibly disappointed, but at the same time he was still so strong minded about his next step to succeed.”
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Getty Images)Harry Kane's last club game away from Tottenham was a memorable one. He was on the pitch at Vicarage Road as Anthony Knockaert missed a penalty which would have sent Leicester into the play-off final and Troy Deeney scored a dramatic breakaway winner for Watford.
A decade on, his most recent Spurs game - which could yet be his last - was similarly eventful if not quite as dramatic. Kane was on the scoresheet twice as Spurs won at Leeds to send Sam Allardyce's side down to the Championship, bringing his total for the season up to 30 league goals.
Kane now faces a big decision over his future; a real stick or twist moment. He has been steadfast when presented with a similar crossroads in the past, and every decision he has made has taken him up to this point - even if it hasn't been plain sailing all the way.
