Questions for Harry Kane under new England manager but captain going nowhere in bid for more records

On the eve of the landmark 100th cap that, with more of the recent England spotlight on the dugout than the pitch, has rather crept up on us all, Harry Kane played the hits at a press conference held, fittingly, at Tottenham’s training ground.

He talked of the hunger that still comes so easily, given that, at the age of 31, a maiden major trophy remains elusive. He had another pop at the press and pundits who had questioned his fitness throughout a laboured Euro 2024. He cited Tom Brady, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as familiar idols in the strive for longevity. And at the place where it all began, he recalled the story of how for a long time it looked like it wouldn’t.

Kane will, tonight against Finland at Wembley, become the 10th Englishman to play 100 internationals and surely, given the regard in which the previous nine were held as teen prodigies, the least likely so far.

In terms of the statistics and the charts, the smart money from here is that he will go past them all, to finish his career not only as England’s most prolific footballer, but as its record appearance-maker as well, albeit with the caveat that the international game moves fast.

Wayne Rooney is the obvious warning. Kane’s predecessor as captain, striker and leading scorer was only three weeks beyond his 29th birthday when he won his 100th cap but still ended up five short of the 125 of Peter Shilton, who played until he was 40. True, perhaps Rooney’s precociousness and injury record meant a premature career slowdown was always on the cards.

But one recalls thinking Ashley Cole was a similar certainty to go past Shilton when, at the same age Kane is now, he reached 90 caps as still comfortably England’s and the Premier League’s best left-back. Three years later, he retired from international football having added only another 17 and been left out of the 2014 World Cup for a teenage Luke Shaw.

Still, it would be a surprise if Kane did not get there from here: in the unlikely event he did not miss an international between now and then, he could even draw level with Shilton in the final (or third-place play-off) of the 2026 World Cup.

The man himself, though, is more concerned about goals and has set his sights on adding a century of those to his 100 appearances.

“I felt I was on 30 goals and then, bam, I went to 50 and 60,” said Kane, who has 66 going into this evening’s Nations League fixture. “[100 goals] is definitely there and definitely possible. I feel like I am in a good place and these are good targets to try to reach.”

To do it at his England career scoring rate of two goals in every three games on average, Kane would have to win 150 caps, which feels unlikely even knowing he will surely want to play at least through until the home Euros in 2028. Under Gareth Southgate, however, his 61 goals came at a healthier ratio of three-in-four and if that kind of level can be sustained it might just be doable, with a fair wind and some kind opposition along the way.

It is Southgate’s departure, though, that brings the most intrigue as to what this next stage — perhaps the last — of Kane’s England career will look like. Phase one, which began with a goal 78 seconds into his debut and ended on infamous corner duty at Euro 2016, had the forward still finding his feet in international football, but almost from the start of Southgate’s tenure he was made the main man.

Only in the final weeks of their partnership did the strength of that dynamic wane, a struggling Kane withdrawn with increasing urgency by Southgate as last summer’s tournament wore on, including on the hour in the 2-1 final defeat by Spain in Berlin. A new manager, without the same loyalties, might have been even more ruthless, dropping the skipper from the start.

The feeling heading to Germany, though, had been that without a fit and firing Kane, England’s chance of success fell drastically and ultimately that bore out. The World Cup is two years away, but from this far out as Kane raises the bat, for Lee Carsley or whoever succeeds him, the same rule would seem to apply.