The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 16

Football managers rarely dig out their players. The very best will preach that you should divert the blame and pressure from your squad, projecting it back onto yourself.

Forget that.

Harry Kane needs to get his finger out and, if my season dips into obscurity and averageness, it will be all his fault, not mine.

Quite simply, if I’m paying a small fortune for a player, I need to be able to depend on him. And that means trusting him with the captaincy to maximise his points.

Kane should be the least of my worries. He should be my “fire and forget” player: get him in, captain him and reserve the dilemmas and tinkering with the cheaper options elsewhere.

Instead, come Saturday morning, the Spurs striker is so often causing consternation. I’m not sure I can go on paying all those millions to tolerate uncertainty and frustration.

However, it’s against all my better judgement to get rid.

As I’ve mentioned earlier in the week, I like to cling to big players and build around them. I also put great stock – perhaps too much – in statistics, often turning to numbers to guide decisions.

Kane emphatically ticks both boxes.

But how long can I go on being an apologist for his erratic scoring and inexplicable Wembley struggles?

The Double Gameweek announcement at least makes it certain that, if we do part ways, Kane will eventually return to the fold. So his departure will be a temporary arrangement, perhaps a brief nibble of the greener grass on the other side.

My previous dalliance proved a disaster. A post-Wildcard flirtation with Alexandre Lacazette was punished as Kane fetched his first goals and a big score at Everton. Fingers burnt, perhaps that’s why I’ve stayed loyal to this point.

He can still save himself. Kane’s fate is in his own hands.

He will wear my armband against Stoke today and, if he can edge towards a double-figure score, then exit plans will be torn up. It won’t take much to convince me to sit tight; I might even accept an assist and some more of those distracting shot statistics.

It would be easy to pin the blame on one player should my season fade out with a whimper. Instead, I could have the balls to sell Kane and spread the funds across the squad, perhaps do some proper Fantasy Football management.

But I’m old school. I pay a premium on big players so I can be left to concentrate my efforts on those hefty 4.5 defender decisions.

I’m looking to Kane to make my life easy, and that needs to start today.