It could end up being Roy Hodgson’s great folly. The one decision that no England fan ever forgives him for. Harry Kane. On corners. Really?
Hodgson first handed set-piece responsibility to Kane during the pre-Euro 2016 friendlies but it has not been an unqualified success. England have scored goals from dead balls since, but it was Eric Dier who thumped home a free-kick against Russia after his Spurs team-mate had struggled to make an impact.
In his Standard Sport column on Wednesday Harry Redknapp summed up the mood of English football fans: “Harry Kane is wasted taking corners. If I was him, I’d want to be in the middle on the end of balls into the box. If you talk about goalscorers, you never saw Gary Lineker or Alan Shearer taking corners, did you?”
But perhaps it could all change for Kane, rated by Hodgson as this country’s most natural striker of a ball, “the best deliverer in the team”. And if you believe that you can get very favourable odds on the Spurs hitting what would be an unforgettable goal.
Euro 2016: England vs Wales In Pictures
888sport are offering odds of 100/1 on Kane scoring direct from a corner, rating the possibility only 10 times more unlikely than Gareth Bale hitting a direct free-kick.
Will Kane prove Hodgson right in the most spectacular fashion the Euros has seen? Probably not, but imagine if he did and you hadn’t put a pound on it…
