You’re just not listening to him. Engage with what he is saying rather than assuming some mal-intent.
Kane, one of the best players in the world, with an elite meteorology, had a good relationship with Jose. Kane has in a documentary called out other players’ attitudes as being unacceptable. These same players are now underperforming for Mason. Just as they did for Poch.
I don’t just blame the players, as I think it is more complex than that. I think we need alignment behind a plan. Otherwise we have already failed at whatever we are trying to achieve. But Jose’s whole philosophy is to work with elite players who can handle the pressure and make sure they get over the line in the biggest games. Kane, who believes in his ability and has a relentless desire to improve and be the best, appreciated that.
Jose’s whole thing is encouraging players to take personal responsibility so that in the biggest moments, when he can’t kick the ball for them, they have to execute correctly. That is what Kane means by being men. It is taking responsibility for your performance.
Kane isn’t throwing anyone under the bus. He’s stating facts in a pretty balanced way. Some
of our players are weak minded in the biggest moments, that much is obvious. I thought the Jose appointment was wrong at the time, because we were never going to do what it takes to furnish his squad with players who have elite meteorology, because we don’t spend the biggest money. We need a Poch like figure who builds a system and culture that enables us to compete. But while Jose was here, he did the job he knows how to do, and the players who can hack it, our best players who deserve the most praise, performed well. The ones that didn’t were the ones that Jose would have bombed out, in the same way Poch bombed certain players out, if we were actually going to back him.
I think Kane would have been happy to win under Jose at Tottenham, if we were actually going to back Jose. The fact that we didn’t invest in the side from the position of strength is not Kane’s fault. Or Jose’s. It’s that of a chairman that took a gamble that failed horribly because he hired Jose to do something he had never done before - get average, top 6 players at best to perform above their level. He doesn’t do that. It was the wrong appointment. But it doesn’t mean Jose didn’t have some very fair things to say about our squad, and given Kane has been living it for the last two years and is our best player, I will trust anything he says on the meteorology of the rest of them.
