Tim Sherwood blocked Tottenham plans to 'sacrifice' Kane

Members of the Tottenham hierarchy were keen to off-load Harry Kane shortly after Tim Sherwood took over as the club’s manager last season, the recently appointed Aston Villa boss said on Thursday.

Sherwood claimed he blocked a move by Spurs to sell Kane in the 2014 January transfer window, even though others at the club were actively promoting the idea.

“It’s great I resisted the temptation to get rid of him last January because perhaps he wouldn’t be the star he is for Tottenham,” Sherwood said at a news conference.

“There were people at club who wanted to bring in another striker and sacrifice Harry Kane. I wouldn’t allow that to happen. He got his opportunity and now he’s bouncing forward.”

Sherwood was pleased to see Kane get his first call-up to the senior England squad on Thursday, as he suggested the hard work put in by the young forward on the training ground has been rewarded.

Sherwood had Kane in the Spurs Under-21 side and he had scored just once for the club before Sherwood became head coach in December 2013.

And, after resisting attempts to allow Kane to leave on loan a month later, Sherwood believes his actions have been justified.

“I don’t name names but there was more than one,” he said, when asked who wanted to let Kane, who also had loan spells at Leicester and Norwich, leave.

“That’s why they should listen to football people and they should trust the people who know football within the club and not listen to outside influences who are trying to flog them a player.

“If they would have brought in somebody last January and his name ended in an ‘I’ or an ‘O’, the fans would have been very excited, but I’m not sure he would have given them the same output as Harry Kane has given.

“A lot of people would have taken him, although not in the Premier League. No one would have put their hand up in the Premier League and that just shows you how far he has come.

“Everyone will tell you now they always believed he would be a top player. But he had a few loans and a few managers never played him.

“They’d like him now, wouldn’t they.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that you let your homegrown players go. I thought it was poor that [Jake] Livermore should leave, I thought it was poor that [Steven] Caulker should leave, I’m talking about players who are playing in the Premier League week in and week out.”

“You knew the mentality desire and passion for the game was second to none,” he continued. “He has got tremendous self-belief. He doesn’t see anyone as competition to him, he just sees himself and is willing to improve.

“A lot of credit should go to guys like Christian Eriksen and Gylfi Sigurdsson. Those two guys, along with Harry, spent hours on that training field, striking balls, working on left side, working on the right side. I think they showed Harry Kane the way to train properly.”

Sherwood went on to suggest Kane has the ideal temperament to deal with his rapid rise to international status, as he was rewarded for his 26 goals in Tottenham colours this season when Roy Hodgson named his England squad for upcoming fixtures against Lithuania and Italy.

“We don’t have to worry about him losing his head, getting too big for his boots. He’s not that type of character. He knows there is a lot of hard work to do,” Sherwood continued, before he was asked whether he would compare Kane to his former Blackburn teammate Alan Shearer.

“He’s a little bit different to Shearer,” he added. “There’s a little bit of Teddy Sheringham in there. If he can mould them together a little cocktail of Shearer and Sheringham he ain’t done bad.”

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