Harry Kane’s former Tottenham manager reveals how every EFL loan club got it wrong about Ballon d’Or favourite

Former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood says none of the clubs Harry Kane went on loan to thought he’d become a superstar.

Sherwood handed Kane his first Premier League start back in 2014, having previously worked with him while coaching Spurs’ Under-21 team.

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And it was following Sherwood’s suggestion that the 33-year-old striker got his first loan spell away from Spurs, joining London neighbours Leyton Orient in 2011.

Stints with Millwall, Norwich and Leicester followed – but Kane’s immense talent didn’t seem to be picked up on, at that burgeoning stage of his career.

Kane’s potential not spotted

Speaking to Hawksbee and Jacobs on talkSPORT, Sherwood said of Kane that ‘every manager I loaned him to, not one of them said he’d be a player’.

The England skipper is now the frontrunner to win this year’s Ballon d’Or after enjoying a career-best 51-goal season for Bayern Munich last term – picking up the European Golden Shoe as a result – and captaining his country to their best World Cup finish since 1966.

Backing Kane for the game’s most prestigious individual accolade, Sherwood said: “If he can’t win it this year, he’s not going to win it, is he?

“He can’t do any more than what he’s done, and there’s no one out there who’s won the World Cup, for instance, who’s had an outstanding club season either – so I think Harry should win it.”

Michael Owen was the last English player to scoop the Ballon d’Or back in 2001, following Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979), Bobby Charlton (1966) and inaugural recipient Stanley Matthews (1956).

Those formative loan spells laid the foundations for Kane’s journey to becoming arguably the best striker on the planet.

Sherwood says he’d ‘probably be decent’ at Under-21 level

And Sherwood stressed the importance of young players getting experience of ‘real’ football, explaining: “I’m a firm believer that after Under-18s, they shouldn’t be at your club. They should be out playing competitive football.

“Because the ideal way to develop a player like [Manchester City‘s] Phil Foden is to keep him around; play 10 games; train with world-class players. But if they’re not going to play the games, it’s pointless playing Under-21 football. I could play in it now and probably be decent. It’s like a chess match, the game.

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“It’s not real football. Get them out playing competitive football.”

Sherwood also discussed Will Lankshear, the 21-year-old striker who left Spurs on a permanent basis for Middlesbrough this summer.

talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham told Spurs they’d made a big mistake in letting Lankshear leave.

But Sherwood acknowledged he would have had a lack of opportunities in North London.

Lankshear finds his groove

“He’s got to get regular game time, which he wouldn’t have done at Spurs,” he continued.

“We probably are going to see a lot more of him, simply because he’s playing week after week and getting a bit of rhythm, which he wouldn’t have got at Tottenham.

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“But the trouble you’re going to have with Will is he’s always going to be judged against Championship opposition, and everyone will say, ‘Well, he’s not playing in the Premier League’.

“That’s why a loan to your league is always the best option, but perhaps there was no one putting their hand up for him.

“Obviously, there wasn’t, so he’s done the best thing. He wasn’t going to get an opportunity.

Sherwood then delivered a damning verdict on the Spurs players he believes are preventing youngsters from breaking into the first team.

Spurs spent more than £200m adding to their squad in the summer transfer window.

“Tottenham are signing all these players, and they’re not all superstars, let me tell you,” Sherwood added. “They might be superstar money, but they’re not, and they’re blocking up pathways for the academy kids.

“If I had a kid and I wanted to put him in any academy, it certainly wouldn’t be Tottenham’s at the moment.”