Pochettino Hopes Kane Pledges Future to Spurs
Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful Harry Kane will remain at Tottenham for "a long time" after the forward reached 20 goals for the season with a brace in the 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.
Kane's double and another sublime Christian Eriksen free-kick helped Spurs dominate at the Hawthorns on Saturday as they moved within two points of fourth-placed Southampton, who play Swansea on Sunday.
Inflicting a first defeat on recently appointed Albion manager Tony Pulis capped a perfect week for Spurs after they had sealed a League Cup final date with Chelsea on Wednesday.
Kane, 21, has been widely tipped to sign a new and improved contract in the coming days and, while Tottenham manager Pochettino remained tight-lipped on that development, he made it clear he believes Kane's long-term future lies at White Hart Lane.
"This is the club's and the player's decision," he said. "This is our business but Harry wants to stay at Tottenham and Tottenham want Harry to stay a long time with us.
"It (the brace) is good for him and he is good for the team, his was a great performance, and whenever a striker scores goals it is good for the team.
"My focus is always that a player can improve -– he is young and all players need to show that they want to improve.
"You can never stop your improvement but it was not only him -– all the players showed character and this was the challenge to them when we arrived, to start to show character in this way. It is what we have wanted from the beginning."
Spurs have now won six of their last eight Premier League matches, firmly moving them into Champions League contention, but Pochettino remains cautious about talking up his team.
"We don't speak about that (the run), we need to be focused on the next game and go step by step. This is our objective in the long term, we need to play every game like we played today," Pochettino said.
"If we do that maybe we have the possibility to get there but we need to be consistent from here to the end of the season."
Eriksen's sixth-minute free-kick put Tottenham in the ascendancy before Kane swiftly doubled the advantage with a stinging shot beyond Ben Foster.
West Brom rallied and, but for the brilliance of Hugo Lloris, they could easily have been level by the interval, with the Frenchman thwarting James Morrison and Claudio Yacob with fine saves before Craig Dawson headed against the post.
However, the match was settled in the 64th minute when Joleon Lescott was penalized for handling a Kyle Walker cross with Kane sending Foster the wrong way from the resulting penalty.
Pulis, meanwhile, will now hope he can strengthen his squad before the transfer window shuts on Monday after a lackluster display from his team which left them just three points above the relegation zone.
"I will be (happy) as long as we've brought in a few players," he said.
"The first 20 minutes were very poor. We started sloppy and we gave away the ball too many times. There was no tempo to our game and we handed them a two goal lead.
"We needed a goal but to be fair our goalkeeper was absolutely fantastic and the penalty killed us off."
Source: Agence France Presse
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