‘Different class’: Tim Sherwood says Tottenham very nearly signed £59m striker to replace Harry Kane

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Harry Kane was almost replaced at Tottenham before he’d even started according to Tim Sherwood.

Indeed, according to the former Spurs manager, speaking on Optus Sport, the England captain wasn’t fancied by Franco Baldini when he was coming through the academy.

Of course, Sherwood was the first manager to put any real faith in Kane, but according to Sherwood, Baldini wanted to sign Alvaro Morata rather than giving Harry Kane much of a chance at Spurs as a young player.

Morata nearly replaced Kane

Sherwood spoke about the striker and how Morata almost replaced him.

“He wasn’t sure he (Kane) was good enough, Franco (said that). I said ‘how do you know he’s not good enough, I know the Premier League better than you and I’m telling you he’s good enough.’ He said that we should bring Morata in, he worked with him at Real Madrid and said he was different class to him and said I was biased towards younger players,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood was right

Tim Sherwood may be a bit of a figure of ridicule at Spurs these days after his outlandish takes on punditry, but it has to be said that he was absolutely right about Harry Kane.

Indeed, while some managers may have taken the opportunity to sign someone like Morata who was more proven at the time, Sherwood wanted to keep the faith with Kane, and that faith was repaid.

Now, Morata isn’t a bad player by any stretch, there’s a reason he’s a £59m player and has played for some of the world’s biggest clubs, but even the biggest Morata fan would admit that Kane is a different level.

Sherwood trusting Kane may be the most important decision made at Spurs over the past decade.