The Premier League and Champions League season is only a couple of months old but already Harry Kane is having a ridiculously good season in front of goal.
His brace at home against Liverpool means the Tottenham Hotspur striker has already netted 13 goals in 12 games in all competitions and the words "world class" and links to Real Madrid have been circling on the back pages in recent weeks.
Clive Allen, who scored regularly for Tottenham between 1984 and 1988 as well as playing for Arsenal, QPR, Manchester City, Chelsea, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Millwall joined Joe and Kevin Kilbane on the Football Show to talk about Kane's development into one of the world's elite strikers.
Former Tottenham Hotspur player Clive Allen. John Walton/EMPICS Sport
As Allen said "ironically we're on 13 goals at this stage of the season" when he compared Kane's start to this season and his own beginning to an incredible 1986-87 season. And as a coach previously at Tottenham, Allen worked with a much younger Kane.
"His greatest strength was his amazing attitude towards training and learning and wanting to develop himself. He loved the competition," said Allen, adding that Kane always wanted to do extra finishing training after normal sessions had finished and even when he wasn't playing well, he still had that knack of scoring goals galore.
"He was relentless in pursuit of improving himself and I have to say that he's done better than I actually thought he would and most people at the club thought he would as a young player. It really is a credit to him."
(left to right) Katie Goodland, Harry Kane and Mauricio Pochettino during the Best FIFA Football Awards 2017 at the Palladium Theatre, London. Adam Davy/PA Wire/PA Images
Kane's first team breakthrough didn't truly come until his very early '20s and Allen explained that he was still developing physically and growing into his lanky body.
And his style is quite understated and not necessarily one that would impress if individual attributes beyond finishing are totted up, yet it all comes together into relentless brilliance.
"He doesn't ever try to do anything that he's not capable of and I think again that is something that is special about him," said Allen, who also feels that moving to a Real Madrid or Barcelona would not necessarily help him individually in comparison to staying at boyhood club Tottenham long term.
Allen, whose father Les played in the famous Spurs double winning side of 1960-61, also discussed his own remarkable scoring season in 86-87 for Spurs.
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