Harry Kane says he is expecting Liverpool new-boy Darwin Nunez to be challenging for the Premier League Golden Boot next season.
Asked about Liverpool’s signing of Nunez, as well as Manchester City bringing in Erling Haaland, Kane has given his reaction via Football Daily.
“The battle for the Golden Boot’s always tough,” said the Tottenham striker.
“The Premier League has produced some top strikers across the world for a number of years now. Every season that I’ve been playing it’s always been a tough battle to win that Golden Boot.
“You expect the top strikers to want to play in the Premier League. With those two new signings that’s going to be the case. I think it helps, it helps me as a player to have good competition, it drives me to improve and get better, so for sure I look forward to the challenge.”
Forget Nunez for a second. Kane will first have to get past Mohamed Salah. One of Kane or Salah has won, or jointly won, the Golden Boot for six of the last seven seasons. Perhaps they’ll be a new name on the trophy this time.
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Shades of Suarez in Nunez
It’s easy to get carried away when you’re signing a striker who scored more than 30 goals in the previous season.
The last time Liverpool did that, they were also signing a young Uruguayan striker from a multiple-time European Champion.
That man was of course Luis Suarez. Suarez actually ended up signing from Ajax in January 2011 having missed much of the previous half-season after being handed a ban for biting.
But in the full season prior to that, 2009/10, Suarez plundered 49 goals for Ajax.
His example is a good one to use of why caution should be exercised with Nunez. In time, Suarez would turn into a goalscoring machine of the highest calibre at Liverpool. Before that though, he did start relatively slowly.
Nunez may well have a similarly slow start. If he does, the knives will be out from opposition fans given the fee being paid for him.
Liverpool fans should know better though. As long as the performances are good and he’s showing signs of improvements, the goals don’t necessarily need to come straight away.
If they do, then all the better. Having already won the Bola de Prata for top scoring in Portugal last season, Nunez will be determined to do the same in England.
Salah, Kane and Haaland may all have something to say about that, mind you.