Only gonna comment on this once.
I'm conflicted in a sense on this. I don't necessarily have an issue with Kane claiming the goal against Stoke on the pitch at that moment, but that should have been as far as it went. Spurs won the match, got the three points and if later that Saturday he saw that all the major broadcasters and writers were still crediting Eriksen with the goal, he should have just shrugged his shoulders and said something alone the lines of, 'Ah well, doesn't matter, we won the game anyway and I've had another very prolific season, it's not like I badly need another goal to my name.'
His choice of words ("I swear on my daughter's life I got a touch, but there's nothing I can do") after the event were ill-considered, and bizarre. The daughter point is such a desperate, unnatural thing to say, and adding "there's nothing I can do" afterwards almost gives the impression that not being awarded the goal would somehow have some bad repercussions for him, when in reality all it would mean is him finishing the season with, say, 28 league goals rather than 29.
Moreover, what the hell were Spurs thinking launching the appeal to have him credited with the goal? If they insisted on this, it should at least have been done privately, which still would have been a rotten trick as its only purpose was to bolster Kane's stats at the direct expense of Eriksen's (if it had been a Stoke own goal they tried to appeal, that MIGHT have been a shade better). But to do it so publicly? Very poor form. Saying 'we're not the Harry Kane team, nobody's bigger than the club etc.' is all well and good, but the way they went about it suggests the complete opposite. Eriksen is a top-class player, vital to the upturn in Spurs' quality these past few seasons, who wouldn't look out of place at just about any club in Europe and earns considerably less playing for Spurs than many players who aren't even in his league. It would be wise not to alienate a player like that in those circumstances, yet Spurs seemed oblivious to it.
It's almost as if, in the mind of Spurs, Kane not winning the golden boot = Kane having a pointless season. It's ridiculous. Even in his peak years, Shearer didn't win it every season. Neither did Henry. Aguero, in terms of consistency and overall contribution, has been the best striker in the country (some would say best player) since arriving in 2011, yet he's only been the outright top scorer once. Kane's had another excellent season with a shed load of goals scored - a measly one extra should NEVER have become such a Crusade for Spurs and their fans, particularly as he was already 4 or 5 goals behind Salah in the race for the golden boot at that point and was unlikely to catch up.
BUT!!!.....
While Kane's own handling of this individual issue has been poor, it doesn't necessarily mean he's wrong on the bigger picture he relates it to. The press in this country ARE a joke, by and large, and do relish in the failure of many English players. The fans get caught up in this as well, and are often oblivious to their hypocrisy. People, in all seriousness, are telling Kane on this forum to stop making such a big thing of the Tweet, that it should just be brushed off etc. Now that's fine in and of itself - yet the same people, many of them presumably English and, you'd hope, wanting the national side to excel, are there saying that because of this small issue which Kane is over-blowing, they WANT him to fail badly at the World Cup, and can't wait for the media to stick the knife in when he does.
Which is it, fellas? Not a big thing which Kane needs to get over, or big enough to make him deserving of unrelenting ridicule for the rest of his days and for you to actively want England to fail just so you can lord it over someone you'll never meet? Look how personal and non-football-related some of the statements about Kane have become in this thread, as an example. Look at how so much supposition is suddenly passed off as 'fact' (nobody is saying that we'd win every tournament if the press and fans were nicer before anyone starts). Kane and Spurs deserve some criticism in this instance, but he does have a point when he talks about the larger culture of the press when it comes to coverage of many of our players.
But hey, he plays for a team which isn't Man United, so he's a snowflake, thick, couldn't hack it at a bigger club, deserves to fail, probably demanded that Spurs launch the appeal of he'll leave blah blah blah.
