Mauricio Pochettino has admitted Harry Kane is disappointed following the social media furore surrounding his contentiously awarded goal against Stoke City.
Christian Eriksen was awarded Spurs’ second goal at Stoke on Saturday, but Kane insisted the ball brushed his shoulder on the way in.
Tottenham appealed the awarding of the goal to Eriksen, and Kane has now been officially credited as the scorer.
Kane and the club’s apparent desperation to have the goal re-awarded led to plenty of criticism and wisecracks on social media.
Fans and players from other clubs, particularly Liverpool, have been jumping on Kane ever since the incident, while Spurs supporters have mostly defended the 24-year-old.
On Thursday, Pochettino revealed Kane has been affected by the situation but says he will learn from it.
“Harry is disappointed because he never wanted to create this [imbroglio],” Pochettino told reporters (via ESPN).
“It is a small or simple thing and sometimes they become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and you cannot stop it. That was what happened. He is going to learn a lot from this.
“Of course he never thought that this situation was going to go on to such big things when he was so, so, so, so certain that he touched the ball.
“It’s normal that he was a little bit disappointed [by the reaction] because of course Harry Kane and all of our players have Twitter, Instagram, everything.
“Tottenham fans will back Harry Kane but other fans will kill him. People have opinions but that is normal.”
Hopefully Kane isn’t affected to the point his performances suffer with a big game against Manchester City just around the corner – I’m sure he won’t be.
Kane is now just four goals behind Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the race for the Golden Boot.
I suspect that Harry could really care less about all the cynics and opposition fans that came out of the woodwork to criticize him about “the goal”. Go for the golden boot Harry.
If not for Kane’s interference/presence，the goalkeeper would have no problem saving it! So he should not have any scrupple claiming it.
I feel Kane was wrong, once teammtes start trying to claim their teammates goals we could have serious team spirit issues. In my opinion it was Eriksens goal, and Kane pinching it was wrong. Surely sportsmanship is more important than the Golden Boot?