Kane understands why he was let go by Arsenal

Harry Kane understands why he was released as a youngster by Arsenal but feels he now has the explosiveness to be a long-term success in the Premier League.

Kane trained with the Arsenal Academy for two seasons between the ages of seven and nine before being released.

He played a season at the famous Ridgeway Rovers, David Beckham’s junior team, before being picked up by Tottenham, where he has remained ever since.

Somewhat ironically, the powerful 22-year-old believes it was his small stature which saw him released by Arsenal.

“It’s hard to tell at that age what the player is going to turn into,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I was only small at that age. I was small for my age. I was a late developer. So, look, it is hard to call a player at such a young age.

“After that I went to Spurs when I was 11. It wasn’t like it took off straight from then, I still had to work hard. There were highs and lows along the way.

“As I got older and older, I grew up a bit, caught up to the rest of the players my age and it went from there, really.”

Kane certainly couldn’t be accused of lacking any physicality these days, but it is something he has had to work hard at.

“I do a lot of body weight stuff, power work, with your legs as well,” Kane said. “There are weights involved now and again. There is a bit of mixture. I don’t want to do all weights. I want to get strong using my core and my natural power. It is about doing everything you can so your body can perform at the highest level.

“It has definitely helped me. That [explosiveness] was something that was missing in the years before that. It is what you need in the Premier League – it is so fast and there are so many strong players, especially defenders I come up against. Anything I can do that will help me and the team, I’m happy to do it.”

Kane has recaptured his form in front of goal for Spurs recently with six goals in four games, but the England forward never allowed his confidence to drop during his slow start to the season.

“I think even when I wasn’t scoring goals, I didn’t feel I was playing bad,” he said. “I still felt I was contributing to the team.

“We were playing well as a team, we were picking up results. It was just, I think, a matter of time. I’ve said before, you need a bit of luck. I probably didn’t have that at the start of the season.”