When Harry Kane and Eric Dier walk back towards the tunnel at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday — emotions high, commemorative gifts in hand, seeing the crowd rising to their feet, thanking them for their combined 800 games for the club — they could be forgiven for mistakenly turning into the wrong dressing room instead.
Two of Tottenham’s most important players over the last decade will be back in familiar surroundings to play a friendly match for Bayern Munich. Spurs will be taking the opportunity to thank them both for their service at a pre-match ceremony that is likely to overshadow the game itself.
The nature of modern football makes goodbyes difficult. The player flies off to their new club as soon as the deal is done. There is very little opportunity for an appropriate send-off at the time. Eric Dier told The Athletic in an interview in April that there was just time for a few phone calls as he prepared to leave. He was not in the least bit offended by this. “That’s just the way the business works. Off you go and see you later.”
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So for Kane and Dier — and for many Spurs staff and fans — it is fitting that they have this chance to say thank you and goodbye collectively.
It also gives people a chance to reflect on everything Kane and Dier achieved during their time at the club. They were two of the most important players of the Mauricio Pochettino era, representing the youthful energy that was at its heart, and the happiest memories will always come from that time. But they were reliable in the bad times, too. Both shone during that brief spell when it looked as if Antonio Conte might take Tottenham back to the top.
Dier and Kane in training with Bayern (Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Images)
There was interest from elsewhere, but Kane and Dier both stayed at Tottenham when some of their team-mates started to leave. And the fact that they left when they did — Kane at the start of the Ange Postecoglou era, Dier six months into it — underlined the sense of the fresh clean start. They departed with only good things to say about the club and the new era. Dier was even very complimentary about Postecoglou despite how little he played last season.
They took with them almost 20 years of combined first-team experience. And maybe it will take seeing them at the stadium lining up against Spurs this weekend to get a sense of how valuable that is. Players like that cannot easily or simply be replaced.
Clearly Tottenham have done very well at centre-back signing Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg last summer, one of the best young defenders in Europe. He was a revelation last season and his speed made him perfect for ‘Angeball’.
But Dier was about more than just his performances on the pitch. He was one of the leaders of the squad, the dressing room glue; what sports psychologists call a “cultural architect”. The fact that he went out of his way to help Van de Ven settle last summer is a case in point.
Tottenham have lost a lot of experience over the last year — not just Dier and Kane, but Hugo Lloris and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg too. And one of the big questions for this season is whether Spurs can maintain the same standards and consistency without those senior players who were so important behind the scenes. The start of last season suggests they certainly can. The way they tailed off at the end of the season, maybe not.
But replacing Kane was another matter entirely.
The Kane mural outside the Tottenham Hotspur stadium (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Even now, it requires some mental effort just to get your head around how much the striker meant to Spurs. He was not just their record all-time goalscorer. Not just their best player throughout his time at the club. Not just arguably Tottenham’s greatest player of the modern era. But someone who seemed to be synonymous with the whole club.
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Spurs have sold great players before and wondered how to replace them. When Kyle Walker went to Manchester City in 2017, they already had Kieran Trippier. When Gareth Bale left for Real Madrid, they signed seven players and played Nacer Chadli on the left for the next few years. When Luka Modric was sold to Madrid, they spent all summer trying and failing to secure Joao Moutinho and then struggled in midfield for years.
But none of these situations — not even that of Bale, who was one of the best players in the world in 2013 — is quite like Kane.
None of those players had a huge mural on the side of a building just off the High Road. It is not often that clubs sell one of their all-time greats after a long run in the team while he is also still their best player. The one example that springs to mind is Arsenal selling Thierry Henry to Barcelona in 2007 at the age of 29.
Tottenham must have known how irreplaceable Kane was because they made no real move to secure a like-for-like replacement at the time. The only forwards they signed last season were Manor Solomon, Brennan Johnson and Timo Werner — none of whom have any of Kane’s qualities.
They relied on Son Heung-min and Richarlison to alternate as the No 9. Son never looked comfortable there. Richarlison had one very good run in the middle of the season but struggled to sustain his form. They often looked short by at least one top-level forward, if not two. But with only 41 games last season, they were able to muddle through.
That was not an option this time.
They needed a new senior specialist striker to come in. By the start of the summer, they had identified Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth and a deal is now close. Unlike Son or Richarlison, there is no question about whether Solanke plays centrally or out wide. He will bring to Spurs many of the characteristics — hold-up play, linking play, staying within the width of the box — that they have missed since Kane left.
Solanke in action against Tottenham last season (Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)
In a sense, Solanke is the belated Kane replacement, although that is not a helpful tag to stick on any player.
Maybe the fact he is arriving one year after Kane left makes it easier to come in and play up front for Spurs. He will never be able to escape Kane’s shadow — the 280 goals and the mural outside the ground make that impossible — but perhaps coming in this summer will give him a better chance of succeeding on his own terms.
Tottenham will hope Solanke can build his own legacy.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
