Why underrated Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka will never win Ballon d’Or
Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka are brilliant footballers but do they get the credit they deserve? Let’s start with the hair.
They’re just not cool, are they? We also have mails on us picking on Ange Postecoglou and more flag chat you can skip if you want.
Send your mails – preferably about football – to theeditor@football365.com
Why Harry Kane does not get recognition he deserves
I know the international breaks do weird things to our heads, but I think I’ve finally cracked why Kane doesn’t get the recognition he has surely earned.
Having seen the like of Chris Sutton say that Kane can’t help who he is playing and sure, he could have picked a slightly more competitive league than the German Bundesliga but I don’t think that is what is harming his public perception. It is something far simpler than that – it’s his haircut. Hear me out.
His straightforward, simple 1940s/50s business slick back and scissor cut just doesn’t suit a superstar forward, goal scorer supreme. His style could easily sit atop just about anyone who was an adult in the 80s – 00s. No kid wants to be like him because its not immediately obvious how old Kane is – at first glance he could as easily be 28 as he could be 44. He’s could pass for older uncle as opposed to cool big brother and that I think is the sticking point.
I am totally convinced, even in the madness of a interlull break, that if he had a fade or even one of these modern mullets that are en vogue right now then he’d immediately be cooler. The short beard is manly but also, significantly, not trendy – its too low on the cheeks and too high on the neck.
Yes its easily recognisable as a style or look but its not desirable, is it? Grow his hair out, a high taper or even just a simple brush up would be three options that will a) take years off him 2) make him cool to the kids who will copy him and lastly glow up bit of a personality that goes with the player. And then we can get to work on the grandad slippers of his Skechers boot deal but that is for another day!
So my conclusion is this, if Hazza Kane wants to be in Ballon d’Or contention then he is going to need to sort his barnet asap. My other conclusion is bring back PL footy asap!
Adam Savage
READ: A step-by-step guide to show Harry Kane has actually scored precisely zero proper goals for England
Why Bukayo Saka does not get recognition he deserves
I find the constant debate about Saka and his ability strange if I’m honest.
(Honestly have not seen a constant debate about Saka and his ability, if I’m honest. But carry on… – Ed)
As recent stats have announced, Saka has played 200 games for Arsenal and given us 100 G/A in that time. That’s a game changing piece of influence every 180 minutes. That is phenomenal, especially for a player who began at age 17 at left back. He has 13 MOTM in 45 appearances for England. Since he started for the national team, the only player who has scored more than him is Harry Kane. Those numbers alone should allow some leeway when discussing his impact.
So why doesn’t he get the praise other players with far poorer performances and stats? And I think it is because he isn’t flash. He is the epitome of an effective footballer. He doesn’t do step overs, or skills, or even outrageous shots. He gets the ball, he either plays the right pass, or takes one, two touches and then plays the correct action. He is almost anti-football in how efficient he is.
That may make him less easy on the eye, but there is a reason why teams double, and triple mark him. He is one of the most impactful players I’ve ever seen play the game. He may not do mazy dribbles like Messi or have the pure bombast and superstar skills of Ronaldo. But he will do the right thing, 99 times out of 100. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a player in the world Arsenal fans would swap him for, not one single one.
John (Saka has carried this club on his back since his debut) Matrix AFC
How many digs can you make at Ange?
Long, long time reader of 20+ years. I had 2 letters on a similar subject not published in the last couple of weeks. Did you still only print what you receive ??
How many pops can you take at Postecoglou and his “ludicrous football”. It seems every article I’ve read recently finds a way to gave a crack at him. The “top 10 regrets” has multiple, even when talking about other teams.
We get it. You don’t rate him, hence the narrative you’re driving to get him sacked after a month. 1 month. I can only guess you’ve got a “top 10 shortest managerial stays” article lined up and you need to get him out asap?
(Already been out, fella – Ed)
Just checking notes, Postecoglou came 5th in his first season and won a major European trophy in his second. Clearly he’s a clown with no idea, despite having won major club and international trophies in 3 other countries. He’s taken a country to the World Cup. He’s worthy of a lot more respect. You won’t find a player who’s played under him with a bad word to say about him personally, or with the way he manages.
At least Emery and Maresca can rest easily for a few weeks now they’re no longer in your sights. Emery had 2 excellent seasons at Villa, was lauded by this site constantly, but was near the top of your “sack list ” after a poor first few games. Modern football “journalism” and patience hey.
I’ve sent this, so by your own rules you’ll print this right?
Adam Whitemore
Spice boys > this Manchester United
Well it was good to get some replies I suppose…..
It was a simple question by another contributor just asking if anyone made 3-5-2 work. At the time Liverpool were poor after the Souness debacle and Roy Evans instigated a formation which didn’t require a billion pounds and take 3 years to implement. The Spice Boy white suits were not world beaters, but they performed a lot better than Utd under Amorim. Roy Evans was not a world class manager but he coached a new formation and put the right players in the right positions and they all knew what they were supposed to do.
Trying to compare the teams was a simple exercise looking at what to me (Geoff) isn’t working. The reason it’s obvious is because everyone is saying it. I’m not an oracle, just an old man who remembers a decent 3-5-2 and listens to what pundits, players, papers, fans and even f365 contributors say. I didn’t want to put the usual ‘if they only spend another 400m on Baleba and blah blah then they will be fixed’ so just used the current squad.
More than happy for people to analyze and provide their own thoughts. Just writing HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH doesn’t really add much to the conversation though but as Ed said it was a slow day so I don’t mind.
Good replies today though.
Hong Kong Ian (HAHAHA) LFC
Must we choose between silence and violence?
Ok I’ll bite, as this is what John Nicholson is about now (mmmmmm clicks!). I am writing in response to the recent piece regarding Thomas Tuchel’s comments on the atmosphere at Wembley, specifically the suggestion that fan culture in England must exist only within the rigid confines of silence or full-blown hooliganism.
This is, quite frankly, a ridiculous false equivalence, and John knows it!
Tuchel’s criticism, as widely reported, was not a call for violence, but a plea for passion, noise, and energy. He asked why the roof wasn’t coming off after the team scored three goals in 20 minutes. He was advocating for the kind of vibrant, supportive, and non-violent atmosphere that is the hallmark of many passionate fanbases across Europe and the world. To frame this desire for genuine passion as a push for disorder is a cheap straw man intended only to manufacture outrage. Which, again, Mr Nicholson knows. It ignores the vast middle ground where noise, singing, and chanting our support coexist perfectly fine with civil behavior.
Furthermore, the article overlooks the global reality of sports disorder when it attempts to frame this as solely a European or football-specific issue.
If the argument is that passion leads inevitably to property damage, one only has to look across the Atlantic. Cities in the United States (who are according to this piece completely bemused by our behaviour), often held up as models of sanitised spectator sports, have frequently endured massive civic damage following victorious championships. Whether it’s the Philadelphia Eagles fans climbing poles and looting after their Super Bowl wins, or Los Angeles Lakers fans setting fires and flipping cars after NBA titles, the concept of celebratory, destructive chaos is a well-documented fixture of North American sports culture too.
The reality is that destructive behaviour is a societal problem, not a stadium design flaw or a European peculiarity.
Tuchel wasn’t asking for flares (up arses) and fights; he was asking for atmosphere. To suggest he was demanding violence and criminal damage to justify his comments is disingenuous. The debate should be about how to make matchday experiences better and louder within the bounds of the law, not how to silence them entirely.
Jamie (Chelsea fan, Oxford)
More flag chat
To answer Alexander Tovey’s point about national pride and how the Right show it and the left sneer at it, I think it’s way wide of the mark.
The Left don’t sneer at national pride in my view, and the Right aren’t ’proud’ of Britain. Waving a flag doesn’t mean anything other than waving a flag.
The difference between the left and the right is WHAT MAKES YOU PROUD.
The left and centre left aren’t proud of the country because there’s very little to be proud of at this point in time. There’s huge inequality. We’ve never in the modern era had such a disparity between wages and the cost of literally everything. As a set of people they stand for values, be they moral or ethical or even human rights, and these seem to be in a dire state at present. We don’t believe waving a flag proves anything. It’s a piece of cloth.
The Right are a trickier bunch. They seem to wave the flag more than anyone, yet they seem to hate everything about the country at present.
Britain was a colonial power. It has invited people from all over the world in the past to fill skills gaps. For example in the 1950’s after the war, Churchill and other politicians invited Asians here who had fought with us in the war, to plug gaps in major industries like textiles. It’s why if you go to West Yorkshire, you will see huge Pakistani neighbourhoods around old Mills. Where I live, you have Dewsbury, Bradford, Batley etc where this is the case. You had West Indians also come here in numbers via the Windrush movement.
Britain in this case, is a melting pot – many of those waving the flag now may want a bit more control of immigration – I agree a ‘bit more’ is needed, but the people Gary Neville is talking about, want a STOP to all immigration. They’re obsessed by crime committed by non white people. They’re obsessed with grooming gangs only, not the huge gangs of white groomers also reported on. I WANT ‘some’ control on immigration, for example, I want investment in asylum so cases can be closed quicker and dangerous criminals deported quicker rather than staying in hotels for years, BUT, I wasn’t offended by what Gary Neville said.
People want Gary Neville cancelled because he’s directly calling people out on opinions they’re trying to hide gingerly behind gentler ‘faux concerns’. Go back to 2020 and many England fans were annoyed about players ‘taking the knee’ because it was ‘shoving politics down our throats’ and it should stay separate from sport. The same fans are now singing “F**k Keir Starmer” during every England game. They simply don’t want to be called out.
Gary Neville is calling out people who have hijacked the flag for an identitarian, nationalist agenda. He isn’t offended by a piece of cloth. Nobody is. He’s offended by people who don’t know Britain’s history, making it about appearance and race. It’s as simple as that
And lest we forget, he’s only exercising his free speech. You can disagree with it but not silence it.
Britain is a potentially great country. If you want everyone to wave the flag and be proud, the country needs to serve everyone and not a select few. The Right are virtue signalling. They’re waving the flag but they hate the country in my view. They want it to reflect their view of what Britain should be, and Neville has just disagreed on what that is.
Disgruntled (THFC)
…Sorry I’m not sure how much football is in this, I’ll try.
Alexander Tovey is right that the right own the flags now. That makes sense for the home nation flags like the St George. Clearly there is a connection between nationalism and the St George in any scenario that isn’t football or Rugby. (Ok I have a thread for football, bear with). Except for Scotland, which has different legal and political systems because the Romans sensibly didn’t go near them.
The problem is this appropriation of the Union Jack. We should be proud of so much of what this country achieves and represents however we can’t because a few hundred years ago we Brits were a bit of a bastard and conquered the whole world. Except we didn’t but people seem to forget the other European nations’ colonial activities as well as Japan and others. But Europe lost their colonies to the Nazis, we lost ours fighting for the world’s freedom. Or so one reading of the story would lead us to believe.
The problem is that Britain colonised a third of the world as Britain and not under some other name. This means that the people of this country today are still being held accountable for actions that occurred 400 years ago. Compare this to the Romans, Nazis, Vikings or Ottomans. No one is marching to Italy demanding reparations, apparently no one in Germany was actually a Nazi, the Vikings are characters in children’s films and Ottomans are a type of bed. Italy, Germany, Turkey, the dear sweet Scandinavian countries with their ice baths and paternity leave. Historically these are brutal warriors who have raped and enslaved continents. It wasn’t them though, it was that other group.
Britain endures. The same flag, the same political and legal structure. A flag of a political and legal structure that declared slavery immoral and sought to police the seas until it was removed. A flag that stood against the Nazis alone. A flag that tore India and Pakistan in two, carved up Africa and the Middle East. A flag that recognises the contributions of the suffragettes, the loss of Alan Turing, the contribution of the Windrush generation.
But not a flag for football fans. And why is that? It’s because the home nations each have a seat on IFAB, the governing body that make up the rules of football. The body consists of FIFA, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The fear is that by uniting as Britain, the majority votes that Britain currently holds would be come a minority vote. So instead of once every 2 years, the different peoples of Britain uniting behind their football team, out come the St George waving gate keepers. We should be removing those who aren’t here to better this country and shouldn’t be here. We should be uniting the people who make this country under the Union Jack, whoever they may be.
Alex, South London
Why not just not read?
Moses, the smart c*** just stops reading.
Finlay x
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Dara O’Reilly, London
