Troy Deeney has said that he is better in the air than Harry Kane and also more effective at holding up the ball than the England captain, which is why Tottenham wanted to sign him as a squad player a few years ago.
Deeney is one of Watford’s biggest modern-day legends, having made 389 appearances for the club across the Premier League and the Championship, scoring 121 goals.
The 35-year-old is now in the twilight of his career and plays for Forest Green Rovers in League Two but it was not long ago that he was mooted as a target for some top Premier League clubs.
In fact, he admitted to The Evening Standard two years ago that he had a conversation with Spurs about a potential move to the club during the summer of 2021 but the transfer did materialise as the Lilywhites chose to sign Carlos Vinicius on loan instead.
Deeney has now remarked that even though he is not as good a footballer as Kane, he is better than the former Tottenham man in some aspects of his game, which is why he would have got minutes at the North London club.
(Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
Troy Deeney thinks he is better in the air than Kane
The centre-forward said in The Winners Talking Podcast: “Is Kane a better footballer than Deeney? F****** absolutely, I’d be f****** naive to say he’s not.
“Is he a better finisher than me? Yes.” It is hard for any striker in world football to argue they are better at sticking the ball in the back of the net than Kane.
“Can he head a ball better than me? No. Can he control a ball better than me, like look after it when there are two men on his back? No.
“So when you’re winning a game in the 85th minute, and you need someone to come on because he’s getting a bit tired or whatever, he can’t do what I can do.
“If I was gonna go in at Spurs, that would have been my role. That’s it, that’s what I’m talking about. But apparently, that was a weird thing to say.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Deeney is not as clinical as Kane when it comes to scoring with headers but one can argue that the striker is better at winning longballs in the air and in holding the ball up with back to goal.
I do not think what the 35-year-old says here is ridiculous but predictably, he has been quoted out of context and made fun of for this claim on social media.
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