‘Not a great leader’ – Harry Kane questioned by Simon Jordan in surprise claim

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Simon Jordan has pinpointed the two factors which mean Harry Kane can be ‘questioned as a leader’.The talkSPORT co-host hailed the England captain as a ‘great footballer’ but doubts his leadership ability.GettyKane’s leadership capabilities have been questioned by Jordan[/caption]talkSPORTThe talkSPORT co-host claimed the England captain is ‘not a great leader’[/caption]Kane has worn the armband for the Three Lions since the 2018 World Cup, helping guide them to consecutive Euro final matches.He also captained Tottenham on multiple occasions prior to his move to Bayern Munich two years ago.As well as his spells as skipper, Kane is also both England and Spurs’ all-time leading scorer.Those attributes do not make the 31-year-old a ‘great leader’, though, as far as Jordan is concerned.He made the admission whilst discussing Marcus Rashford’s loan move to Barcelona on Matterface & Jordan.The winger is set to head to the Spanish giants for the season from Manchester United.Jordan explained: “We know that there are very few leaders in football, there are more often people that are followers.“Unless you create a strong environment where strong leadership blossoms, and I think Rashford has the propensity to be one, follow in the way that you want them to follow, you lose them.“And you lose them to distractions, they get involved with outside influences, they’ve got more interest in what they’re doing in their social life.“They make judgement calls like going out to nightclubs when they got smashed by Man City, they make the decision for their birthday to go and not turn up for training and go out in Northern Ireland and things of that nature.Kane has captained the Three Lions to two Euro final defeatsGettyJordan claims the striker ‘didn’t turn up’ in the 2019 Champions League finalGetty“And these are things that are clearly being tolerated by culture. Alongside that, you’ve got the distractions and the wealth and the affluence that football has.“You’ve got the culture of people not allowed to be told the truth because if you tell them the truth they can’t cope with it, it’s only good news that they can hear, that’s why you don’t build resilience and you don’t build leadership into sport.”Sam Matterface then made the comparison between Rashford and Kane, adding: “The only caveat I would put on all that is I look at some of his contemporaries and I don’t think that you would have said at the outset of his career that Harry Kane was going to be a leader.”In response, Jordan claimed: “I don’t think he’s a leader. I think he’s a great player. I don’t think he’s a great leader.”His co-host disagreed, though, stating: “I think what he does is he leads by example.“And his example is that even when Tottenham, who have comparably had more difficult situations going on than Manchester United, they’ve changed manager a lot more often, and they’ve struggled in league positions in a similar fashion, he still delivered.” However, the former Crystal Palace chairman doubled down on his stance regarding Kane’s leadership capabilities.He replied: “That’s a form of leadership. I suppose they’ve never won anything under him, and in competitions like the Champions League in 2019 they didn’t even turn up in the final against Liverpool. He didn’t turn up in that game.“There’s been instances in the other games where he hasn’t scored against the bigger opposition that question him.“But I don’t think you can question Harry Kane as a footballer. I think you can question him as a leader.“I think Antonio Conte made it very clear to Daniel Levy as part of his little departing salvo that he thought there was not a single leader in that dressing room.”Kane was unable to win a trophy during his time at Spurs, losing a pair of League Cup finals as well as the Champions League’s showpiece fixture in 2019.Kane ended his trophy drought last season by lifting the Bundesliga with BayernGettyHis pair of Euro final defeats with the Three Lions also prolonged his trophy drought until it finally ended last term.Bayern Munich clinched their 34th league title after Kane scored 26 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances during his second season in Germany.