Harry Kane is reportedly most upset about a throwaway joke made by PFA chairman Ben Purkiss, which appears to have left the Tottenham striker with a very, very, extremely mild case of post traumatic stress.
Speaking on stage at the PFA Awards last weekend, Purkiss made the following quip during his speech:
Harry Kane is so prolific that he is able to score without touching the ball.
Hardly the most coruscating one-liner, eh? But apparently it was enough to make Kane feel like he’s being “bullied” as a result.
The reference being, of course, Kane’s desperate (and ultimately successful) quest to claim Spurs’ winning goal against Stoke City a week or three back, despite the ball appearing to go directly in from a Christian Eriksen freekick.
Regardless, Kane “swore on his daughter’s life” that he got a touch on the cross and then coerced his club into lodging an official appeal with the Premier League Goals Accreditation Panel in his clamour to finish second in the Golden Boot stakes this season.
Purkiss, who plays for Swindon, was among many to rib Kane over his obsessive hunt for numbers, and it looks like the England striker has been suffering as a result.
This from the Daily Mirror:
It is understood Kane and his family are furious and see the jokes being made at the striker’s expense as a form of bullying.
Bullying? Christ. Bullied is what David Beckham was in the aftermath of the 1998 World Cup, mate. Rained down upon by an entire national press for month after merciless month.
This is what happens when you grow up and allow your mental fortitude to form inside a hermetically-sealed bubble.
Either Kane is being misrepresented by a national newspaper or Bob Mortimer’s impression of him on the Athletico Mince podcast really is more spot-on than he could have ever imagined.
It’s a fluffery-buffery and no mistaking.