Micah Richards has made a controversial admission about Tottenham Hotspur and Harry Kane.
Spurs finished fifth in the Premier League in the 2023/24 season, while Bayern Munich failed to win any silverware even though Kane directly contributed to over 50 goals in all competitions.
The move hasn’t quite worked out for the England captain, but Tottenham can be proud of how well they did in his absence in the recently concluded campaign.
Micah Richards makes controversial claim on Harry Kane and Tottenham
Harry Kane left Tottenham to join Bayern Munich before the start of the 2023/24 season.
That was viewed by many as a massive blow for Spurs. Several people expected them to struggle without him – Paul Merson even thought they would finish below 10th.
However, Ange Postecoglou has transformed Tottenham following Kane’s departure.
The North Londoners finished just two points behind fourth, which shows serious improvement from the previous campaign, in which they finished eighth.
That has led to a debate over whether Tottenham are actually better off without Kane in their side.
Richards certainly thinks so.
The pundit, after suggesting it on multiple occasions over the last few months, has now finally claimed that Spurs are better without Kane.
He said on the Rest is Football podcast: “Are they better or worse with Harry Kane? Well, basically, they got more points this year, didn’t they? They got a higher finish this year.
“So, I’m going to have to say, selling Harry Kane was the right thing to do.”
When Gary Lineker directly asked him “Are Spurs better without Harry Kane?”, Richards replied: “They’ve got more points and they finished higher, so you have to say yes.”
Then, Alan Shearer asked Richards what stopped him from making this admission months ago.
Richards suggested that he had been holding back his opinion because he wanted to wait until the season came to a close.
“I just wanted it to be concrete. I wanted the season to be done,” he said.
READ MORE: Gary Lineker predicts where Tottenham would’ve finished this season if Harry Kane stayed
The simple reason why Richards is completely wrong about Kane
If you just look at the points and where Tottenham finished in the 2023/24 campaign, you can be tricked into believing that Spurs are better off without Kane.
However, that is not accurate at all.
Kane scored 30 goals in the Premier League in his final season as a Tottenham player. In that campaign, Spurs’ total xG of just 60.44 (Understat), which means Kane, on his own, scored half of his club’s expected goals.
In the 2023/24 season, Spurs’ total xG in the Premier League was 78.76 (Understat). However, they still only managed to score just four more goals than the previous campaign.
That’s because they did not have an elite goalscorer like Kane leading the line. If the Englishman had stayed, he would’ve surely scored a ton of goals – just look at his numbers for Bayern Munich: 44 goals in 45 games.
Even if Kane had stayed and just matched his goal return from the 2022/23 season, Tottenham would’ve been in a much better position.