instal the new Soccer Football League 19

Kane will celebrate his 30th birthday next month and the evidence suggests he is getting better with age.

There is an argument that any team with Kane in it has the perfect number 10, as well as one of the most potent number nines. Kane won the ball and started the move that led to Rashford netting England’s third on the stroke of half-time and played a wonderful pass for Bukayo Saka to complete his hat-trick. It was not just his goals that would have impressed the United fans in Manchester.

Shaw admitted in the build-up to the European Championship qualifier at Old Trafford that he would take Kane at United “in a heartbeat”, even though his club seemingly do not fancy a summer-long battle with Levy.

Of England’s outfield starting line-up against North Macedonia, Kane was the only man without a winners’ medal which must confuse his international team-mates as much as it baffles non-Spurs supporters. Kane is in a stronger position than he was in 2021, when he tried to engineer a move to Manchester City, with just one year remaining on his Spurs contract and little sign of him signing an extension. Some of Kane’s England team-mates believe the 29-year-old is ready for a new challenge, but the market might not move without him giving it a shove - just as he tried to do two years ago. There should really be a queue of clubs ready to spend all summer trying to sign Kane and yet Levy’s £100 million valuation of his star man, added to his determination to make life particularly difficult for Premier League rivals, means genuine interest is not what it should be. Does he sit tight and hope that reports of United ending their interest in him due to the demands of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy prove to be a bargaining chip, or does he take matters into his own hands? There was time for a 41st goal from the penalty spot before he was replaced by Callum Wilson and with his 64-game season now completed, Kane’s focus must turn fully to his own future.

The fact Kane’s 40th goal of the campaign for England and Tottenham Hotspur was made by Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw will have only whetted the appetite of United fans inside Old Trafford on Monday night even more. They are the words Manchester United fans dream of hearing on a regular basis after the striker completed his second-best goalscoring season for club and country.

Instal the new Soccer Football League 19