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Harry Kane admits Tottenham can no longer hide behind excuse of youth and inexperience

'We’re a team that has made huge strides in a short amount of time and the only way to continue that is to start winning things. We’re not young anymore'

Samuel Lovett
Monday 20 August 2018 16:03 BST
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Tottenham 2018/19 Premier League profile

Harry Kane has admitted that Tottenham can no longer hide behind the excuse of youth or inexperience, adding that only title success will now suffice despite the significant improvements made under Mauricio Pochettino.

Under the Argentine, Tottenham have been seen as a ‘work in progress’ by many due to the youthful composition of the squad.

Last season, Pochettino put his side’s Champions League defeat by Juventus down to “experience” and later insisted that Spurs “needed more time” after Manchester United knocked them out of the FA Cup semi-finals.

But after five years of development under Pochettino, Kane believes it’s time Tottenham stepped up to deliver.

“We’re a team that has made huge strides in a short amount of time and the only way to continue that is to start winning things,” he said after Tottenham’s 3-1 win against Fulham. “We’re not young anymore.

“We’re getting to an age where we’re that bit more experienced and we want to win. We want to win at everything we do. We’ve just got to try to do that. It’s a long old season and starting with two wins out of two is important.”

Tottenham’s growing experience and age was reflected in the side that beat Fulham at Wembley. Pochettino used 14 internationals in Saturday win’s — including a World Cup-winning captain and seven semi-finalists — while the side had an average age of over 26.

“I think we are reaching our prime,” Kane added. “It’s the fifth season the manager has been here and a lot of us have been here throughout that spell. When you have a team that has known each other for that long, you know how each other plays and, off the pitch, you know how to keep everyone up for it and everyone honest. That’s what we’ve got.”

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