Tottenham’s late collapse last season hurt us badly – Kane

Harry Kane has admitted that finishing below Arsenal “hurt” Tottenham “a lot” and put a “dampener” on last season.

Spurs emerged as Leicester’s main contenders for the Premier League crown last campaign, but managed to finish behind the Gunners after failing to win any of their final four fixtures.

Draws with West Brom and Chelsea ended their title hopes, while defeats at home to Southampton and the humiliating 5-1 hammering at Newcastle saw Arsenal leapfrog them.

And Kane has explained just how the club’s late collapse affected the players.

“It hurt us a lot,” he told ESPN. “Not just not finishing above Arsenal, we wanted to finish second. We did well all season, we went game-to-game with Leicester pretty much until the end of the season.

“We wanted to finish strong. If we’d finished second, everyone would have said ‘ok Leicester won the league but Tottenham had a good year’. But it ended up with Leicester winning the league and Spurs having a disappointing season. But it wasn’t – it was a great stride and progression.

“That put a dampener on everything. Of course we want to finish above Arsenal, we want to finish above every team. But it’s more that we wanted to finish second to say ‘alright, we didn’t win the league but we had a great season’.

“Last year was the first year in the Premier League for a few of our players. We fought for the title for so long and we were disappointed with the way it ended. This year we’ve had another year of playing together – we know each other better on and off the pitch – and we have a better relationship.”