Despite the so-called curse of not winning any club silverware so far in his career, Harry Kane showed absolutely no signs of struggling to adapt to life in the Bundesliga at Bayern Munich after moving from Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League last summer. The Rekordmeister failed to win any trophies for the first time in a decade before Thomas Tuchel was axed by the club shortly before the end of the season, but that did not stop Kane from personally netting a total of 44 goals and providing 12 assists from 45 appearances across all competitions.
Normally, at this time of year Kane would be preparing for the Tottenham fixture list to be piling up thick and fast as the winter holiday season quickly approached, but that obviously changed last season with him being able to have a winter break as a Bundesliga player. There could be strong points on either side of the argument on the benefit of Kane having had a few weeks off during the holiday’s last season and if it helped him stay more fit for longer, but all of that is essentially speculation at this point.
Indirectly echoing the sentiment of former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp often being vociferous in his disdain for the Premier League not having a brief winter break, Kane recommended the English top flight give it a try at some point while he was away on England duty during the international break. Kane said he felt the break was something that really helped him personally last season and that is was a “shame” the Premier League does not have one.
Per the Daily Mail’s chief football reporter Sami Mokbel (via @iMiaSanMia), Kane’s remarks about the English top flight and the lack of a winter, holiday break were essentially laughed off by officials from the league. This came on the heels of the England skipper being critical in a press conference of the amount of players that withdrew from the England squad prior to their first of two UEFA Nations League matches against Greece and then the Republic of Ireland. All of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Bukayo Saka, Levi Colwill, Phil Foden, Jarrad Branthwaite, Aaron Ramsdale, Jack Grealish, Declan Rice, and Cole Palmer withdrew from the squad before the first match, which was in Athens to take on Greece.
England Training And Press Conference Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images
Kane’s comments on the plethora of Three Lions squad withdrawals garnered mixed reviews in the press, but his remarks about not having a break that exits during the holiday period in the Premier League were not taken too seriously. With the extra cup competition that exists in England (Carabao Cup) as well as the domestic league playing more matches than the Bundesliga, there does not currently seem to be a feasible way for the F.A to get all of their matches in with a break in the winter.