'Harry Kane curse? F*ck off!' - Bayern Munich striker told trophy hoodoo is 'stupid and disrespectful' by former Bayer Leverkusen star as Xabi Alonso's side look to deprive England captain of Bundesliga title

The England captain joined the Bavarian giants from Tottenham in the summer having not won a single trophy throughout his 430 appearances for the north London club. Bayern have been Bundesliga champions the past 11 seasons but currently sit five points off the pace behind Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen, and risk being dumped out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage. But given Kane's exploits in front of goal, ex-Leverkusen and Manchester United striker Berbatov is having no such hoodoo talk.

Berbatov told Betfair on Kane's form at Bayern: "Harry Kane is still scoring goals and I’m sure that keeps him happy. If you’re looking at club level, they’re fighting for trophies, but they’re five points behind Leverkusen. That’ll be really bad for Harry because he went there to win trophies. Football can be f*cking cruel. Nothing is over yet, though. Bayern still have a chance to fight for the trophy. It’ll be difficult but the chances are still there. I still think Harry is happy because he’s scoring goals.

"Harry Kane curse? F*ck off, that sounds stupid and it’s disrespectful! I don’t want to even think about it. Sometimes football and life works like this. At the end of the day, when he retires from football, he’s going to win some trophies, for sure. When he’s scoring so many goals, but the team is still not good enough, then the striker is doing his job. People need to look at the other positions, are the other players doing their best to compliment Harry Kane? They’re leaking many goals in defence."

As Berbatov notes, Bayern's failings at European and domestic level - having also been eliminated from the second round of the DFB-Pokal - are not for Kane's want of trying. The ex-Spurs star has broken numerous records on his way to recording a staggering 24 league goals in 21 matches, which sees him comfortably top the Bundesliga scoring charts. However, those efforts weren't enough to save him from a scathing review by German media following Bayern's damning 3-0 loss to title rivals Leverkusen last weekend.

Two defeats in as many games sees Thomas Tuchel under serious pressure at the helm, with several candidates reportedly in line to replace him in Bavaria. He will aim to alleviate some of that tension when Bayern face 14th-placed VfL Bochum in their next league match on Sunday.