Finishing the season as the Premier League’s top scorer has done little to numb Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane’s pain after Spurs not only lost out to Leicester City in the title race but saw bitter rivals Arsenal climb above them on the final day.
Tottenham’s impressive season floundered in the final weeks as they picked up just two points from their final four games, including a 5-1 hammering by relegated Newcastle on Sunday that allowed Arsenal to finish above them for the 21st year in a row.
Kane won this season’s Golden Boot with 25 goals, one more than Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, but the forward said personal glory was overshadowed by his side’s woeful finish.
“It would have been nicer to have won the golden boot on a better day,” Kane, who was named in England’s preliminary squad for Euro 2016 on Monday, told British media.
“For me, it’s a little bit of a good feeling but overall I’m gutted we haven’t finished the season off strong.
“That definitely makes it harder because we know how much it means to the fans and how much it means to the club. When people think Arsenal had a bad season and we’ve had a good one, yet they still finish above us, it hurts.”
{{/usCountry}}“That definitely makes it harder because we know how much it means to the fans and how much it means to the club. When people think Arsenal had a bad season and we’ve had a good one, yet they still finish above us, it hurts.”
{{/usCountry}}Finishing third puts the club into next season’s Champions League but Kane said that while Spurs were making progress they had a long road ahead of them.
“Games like Newcastle and the last few weeks show there’s still a lot of work to do. We haven’t cracked it yet,” he added.
“We’re still learning, we still have to work hard and we still have to improve. But everything is in place so we all have to try to stay positive – us, the fans, the club – because we’re moving in the right direction.”