Kane questions mentality of fans who mock England stars

Harry Kane has questioned the mentality of English fans after being subjected to ridicule on social media over the last few weeks.

Kane, arguably the country’s best player and certainly key to any chance England have at the World Cup this summer, has been the butt of jokes following his decision to appeal the awarding of a Tottenham goal at Stoke to Christian Eriksen.

He was then ridiculed by the FA Cup’s official Twitter feed, a Football Association competition, in the wake of Spurs’ semi-final defeat to Manchester United last week, with the post suggesting he was in Chris Smalling’s pocket.

“It is strange, I think it is a mentality thing,” Kane said after scoring his 27th Premier League goal of the season in Spurs’ 2-0 win over Watford on Monday.

“It is easier these days to maybe banter England players or take the mick out of England players, if we don’t do well in the World Cup it’s, ‘Oh we told you so’.

“It’s maybe a weaker mentality, but it is what it is, as a team we are focused on what we need to do. We have got to go with a mindset and a belief that we can win, we try and win everything we do and the World Cup is no different.

“On social media you can get a few people that don’t see eye-to-eye but that is part of fans and opinions.

“Everyone is passionate about their clubs and rightly so but as a nation when it comes to the World Cup that is the most important thing is the nation, that’s what comes first.

“For me personally, I have always engaged with my fans, there are a small minority of fans that maybe go over the mark, but that is life, you can’t get too down about it.”

Kane has perhaps not been helped by his club manager Mauricio Pochettino, who claimed he was “sad” about the FA Cup tweet and “disappointed” by the goal-claiming jibes.

“The FA tweet was a silly tweet, we all know that,” Kane added. “I talked to the gaffer about it and all he was saying was would other countries do that to their own players, probably not.

“It is something that has gone, it was two weeks ago or whatever it was, I am over it.

“The gaffer said I was sad, I am focused. I am a guy who gets on with things.

“If it happens, it happens, I move on, I look forward, I look forward to the next game, that’s all I worry about, getting out on the pitch and doing my job.”

Kane’s goal against Watford was him answering his critics in the only way he knows how and it took him to within four goals of Mohamed Salah in the race for the Premier League’s Golden Boot.

Kane is hunting a third successive crown and is not afraid to admit it.

“It is something I obviously want to win, every striker in the Premier League wants to win that Golden Boot and I am no different,” he said.

“I want to win at everything I do, whether it’s the Golden Boot, every game, if I am playing a game with my mates I want to win that.”