'What have I done to deserve this?!' - What Harry Kane will be thinking amid trophy struggles as England told NOT to drop their captain at Euro 2024

The prolific England international severed career-long ties with Tottenham in the summer of 2023 in a bid to break his silverware duck. Bundesliga giants were considered to be as close to a guarantee of major honours as it is possible to find, but they ended Kane’s debut campaign in Germany – which delivered 44 goals across all competitions – empty-handed.

Kane my be feeling a little cursed, but former Spurs star Anderton has – speaking in association with William Hill – told GOAL when asked if the 30-year-old frontman will finally get to savour that winning feeling: “You have got to feel sorry for him. What a great guy, what a player, what a loyal player to Spurs for all those years. I don’t blame him. It was almost the easy option to go to Munich, win something and maybe come back. I wish he was there now, the way that Ange [Postecoglou] plays, that would be amazing. I think he will [win a trophy]. I really hope for him that he does. Someone with that much quality, and has done that much as an individual, deserves it. Maybe this summer!”

Quizzed on whether the lack of silverware - alongside the endless questions that said barren spell continues to deliver - will be annoying Kane, ex-Three Lions star Anderton added: “I think it will really annoy him this year, the way it happened. He’s done great at Munich, people in Germany love him, he has been outstanding. But of course Xabi Alonso’s team [Bayer Leverkusen] have come along and done something unthinkable. He must be, inside, saying ‘what have I done to deserve this?’ There’s no doubt that he has got to be thinking that. He is a very level-headed guy, but that’s got to gnaw away at you.”

Kane is currently on Euro 2024 duty with England, as another trophy quest presents itself there. He has registered one goal through three group stage games, but has also faced suggestions of being dropped as Gareth Southgate struggles to find a spark. Anderton said when asked if Kane is the type of player that is never benched, regardless of how they are playing: “It’s a tough one. It’s difficult to bench him, for sure. I think when [Ollie] Watkins came on the other night [against Denmark], and made that little run behind – which is what we have been crying out for – it definitely made people sit up and be like ‘okay, maybe, something different’. Your captain, your goalscorer, I think it’s very difficult to drop him. I’d like to see him do more where he makes those runs in behind, especially if we aren’t going to play an [Anthony] Gordon or someone that will run behind and stretch the pitch, so all of those quality players that we have got can go and play in that hole behind him. At the moment we are very easy to play against, not a lot of movement. I’d say that he has to stay in the team, but I would like to stretch the pitch and ask him to try and do it himself.”

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are among those to enjoy an almost untouchable standing for club and country, with Kane seemingly in that bracket. Pressed on whether that has become the case, with England prepared to turn a blind eye to the odd dip in form as they know what their all-time leading goalscorer can do on any given day, Anderton said: “I think so. He’s your talisman, your goalscorer – scored 50 goals this season for Bayern and England and is always going to score goals. You have got to create chances for him. We are pretty dull to watch. There has been zero creativity. He’s that important to us. He has got that quality – that international quality, and it’s a different game when you get chances at that level. In the first game [against Serbia] the keeper made a great save, he got his goal in the second game [versus Denmark]. I think we are going to get better – we have to. The last Euros, when we got to the final, we didn’t play entertaining, we got the job done. Gareth has highlighted that when he said Kalvin Phillips is the missing link. That doesn’t bode well, if that’s the difference between doing well or not.”

England have seen another draw open up in front of them at this summer's European Championship, having enjoyed similar fortune at the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020, with Slovakia next on the agenda for them in the last-16. The likes of Spain, Germany, Portugal and France are all on the other side of the draw, meaning that a shot at the ultimate prize could open up for Kane and Co if they are able to start building confidence and momentum.