Harry Kane's mental strength provides foundations to become a Premier League great
It hardly seems fair that so many doubts have accompanied Harry Kane throughout his professional career.
Beyond the already significant challenge of establishing himself in the Premier League, he has also had to deal with the almost constant belief that he will eventually fade away.
It was widely assumed he would not be able to follow up on his breakthrough campaign and replicate his incredible goal-scoring for a second season.
There was a belief that while he would connect with a football fairly well when on form, there was no particular aspect of his game that stood out; he is not fast, nor especially strong; he doesn't dribble past opponents, nor is he tall enough to be a target man.
And perhaps the gripe that leaves him most susceptible to criticism is the lack of that nasty streak we so love to see in our future England stars (see Dele Alli or Wayne Rooney, for example).
Without that mean side it's almost assumed he will be mentally weak, and will struggle to bounce back from the droughts that come around at some stage each year - and are highlighted at every opportunity by his detractors.
He took seven games to score his first goal of the 2015/16 season, while he was out of sorts either side of a desperately disappointing Euro 2016 campaign. Even Roy Hodgson's decision to have Kane take corners in France was another reason to take aim at the player.
But he just seems to bounce back every time, despite constant questions from all directions. And when he is on a hot streak he is absolutely lethal.
He has 13 goals in his last 12 games, having already hit nine in nine earlier this season. Both of those come after a seven-week layoff with an ankle injury which followed shortly after the Euros. During the time he was out there were plenty of questions about how quickly he would be able to rediscover form. He scored at Arsenal on his return, got three in two against West Ham and Monaco immediately afterwards.
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Manager Mauricio Pochettino has always believed in the the player's self-confidence, saying in November 2015: "When we arrived he [Kane] was behind Soldado and Adebayor. We gave him the tools and he knew how to use them. He has a tremendous talent and mental strength. It is crucial."
He plays just about every game and further presumptions are made that he will be burn out given how much Pochettino asks of his players, but Kane will always vehemently deny any part fatigue might play. His record in the face of criticism gives little reason to believe he finds his workload troubling.
Since the start of the 2014/15 season, during which Kane became Spurs' starting centre forward, Kane has scored more Premier League goals than any other player, with 63 in 93 games.
With a goal every 123 minutes, he has also netted more frequently than any other player to score at least 15 goals in that time except Sergio Aguero, who was already an established world class striker when Kane was still proving himself, and has been playing in a more dominant side, too.
Those two have the most hat-tricks in that time, with four each, though the claim that Kane is a flat-track bully is misplaced, given Arsenal and Chelsea are among the teams he scored against most.
With Sunday's treble against Stoke taking him into triple figures for career goals, he "has the profile to be a legend" at Tottenham, according to his manager. Only five players had more Premier League goals than Kane at the point of 24, and the Spurs and England forward has five months to go before he reaches that birthday.
The next worry may be that he follows the likes of Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Chris Sutton in peaking too early, but that is exactly the sort of challenge to which Kane will respond.
His latest display encapsulated everything so brilliant about Kane: clinical finishing, an ability to score all types of goals and that unbeatable knack of being in the right place at all the right times.
It won't matter to Kane if doubts start to creep in next time he misses a few chances. His unerring confidence in his own ability and the mental strength to sideline any self doubt is commendable, and leaves his with all the tools and more to go on to become a Premier League great.
