'Harry Kane at the Stretford End' - What every Manchester United fan wants to hear again at Old Trafford

Harry Kane at the Stretford End. They are the words Manchester United fans dream of hearing on a regular basis after the striker completed his second-best goalscoring season for club and country.

The fact Kane’s 40th goal of the campaign for England and Tottenham Hotspur was made by Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw will have only whetted the appetite of United fans inside Old Trafford on Monday night even more.

There was time for a 41st goal from the penalty spot before he was replaced by Callum Wilson and with his 64-game season now completed, Kane’s focus must turn fully to his own future. Does he sit tight and hope that reports of United ending their interest in him due to the demands of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy prove to be a bargaining chip, or does he take matters into his own hands?

There should really be a queue of clubs ready to spend all summer trying to sign Kane and yet Levy’s £100 million valuation of his star man, added to his determination to make life particularly difficult for Premier League rivals, means genuine interest is not what it should be.

Some of Kane’s England team-mates believe the 29-year-old is ready for a new challenge, but the market might not move without him giving it a shove - just as he tried to do two years ago.

Kane is in a stronger position than he was in 2021, when he tried to engineer a move to Manchester City, with just one year remaining on his Spurs contract and little sign of him signing an extension.

Of England’s outfield starting line-up against North Macedonia, Kane was the only man without a winners’ medal which must confuse his international team-mates as much as it baffles non-Spurs supporters.

Shaw admitted in the build-up to the European Championship qualifier at Old Trafford that he would take Kane at United “in a heartbeat”, even though his club seemingly do not fancy a summer-long battle with Levy.

It was not just his goals that would have impressed the United fans in Manchester. Kane won the ball and started the move that led to Rashford netting England’s third on the stroke of half-time and played a wonderful pass for Bukayo Saka to complete his hat-trick.

There is an argument that any team with Kane in it has the perfect number 10, as well as one of the most potent number nines.

Kane will celebrate his 30th birthday next month and the evidence suggests he is getting better with age. Only once before, in 2017/28, has Kane bettered 41 goals for club and country, and this season’s tally was achieved in a season in which Tottenham finished eighth in the Premier League table.

That was the Premier League’s lowest-ever finish by a club with a player who has scored more than 25 goals. Blackburn and Sunderland both finished seventh with Alan Shearer scoring 31 and Kevin Phillips hitting 30. Kane is the first player ever to score 30-plus goals in two separate 38-game Premier League seasons.

Given the fact he played in each of Tottenham’s 38 League games in the season just gone, Kane does not need to worry that time is against him if he has to see out the final year of his Spurs contract.

England manager Gareth Southgate has already backed him to emulate former United striker Teddy Sheringham and play at the top level until he is 40, and there would surely be fierce competition between Europe’s top clubs to take Kane on a free transfer this time next year.

Given the scarcity of competition this summer, United may not have a better chance to try to sign Kane and giving up without so much as a fight before we’re even in July feels prematurely defeatist for the club that plays in the so-called Theatre of Dreams.