Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo paid tribute to the club’s “amazing” fans after they gave Harry Kane a hero’s reception on his long-awaited Spurs return.
Kane’s exile ended in the 1-0 win at Wolves when he came on as a 72nd-minute substitute, having not been involved in the opening two games of the season following his late return to pre-season training amid a desire to join Manchester City.
The England captain has lost some favour with supporters for his behaviour in trying to agitate a move to City, with home fans chanting ‘Are you watching Harry Kane?’ as Spurs beat Pep Guardiola’s side last week.
But those travelling to Molineux made it clear that their star striker, who thought he had played his last game for his boyhood club, still has the love as they greeted his arrival with a loud rendition of ‘Harry Kane, he’s one of our own’.
Nuno said of the fans’ reaction: “Of course. We have to be together. I understand many of the things but we are Tottenham Hotspur.
“Everybody wants to feel good and be good. I was pleased with the attitude of our fans. We have amazing fans and we have to be very thankful for it.”
Away days are back. 😍 pic.twitter.com/6QdsX8tyrd— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 22, 2021
Kane came on for Son Heung-min, who appeared to be struggling with a hamstring injury throughout the game.
The South Korean left the pre-match warm-up early, followed by medical staff, and he did not look at his electric best.
Nuno says he will be assessed, explaining: “For now he’s alright. In the warm-up he had a strange feeling but he was OK to play. I don’t know. Let’s assess him.”
Dele Alli’s early penalty gave Nuno a winning return to Wolves, the club he left at the end of last season after four impressive years where he took them from the Championship to the Europa League quarter-final.
Wolves are yet to win under Nuno’s replacement Bruno Lage, having lost both of their games 1-0, though they did more than enough to take something from Spurs.
Captain Conor Coady said on the club’s official website: “We all know about Nuno. What he did for this football club was incredible in the four years.
“But we came here with a game plan, we wanted to win, we wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to press and we did it, but we just couldn’t get the goal in the end.
“It’s really hard to take. We felt it in the second half last week (against Leicester) as well, but I thought we were outstanding today from start to finish.
“We pressed high, we were aggressive, we created a lot of chances for ourselves, we were aggressive in the tackle, and we were much higher up the pitch, which was something we’ve been working on since the gaffer came in, who’s been fantastic.
“This is really tough to take against a real top team, but I feel we’ve nullified them to very few chances, and they only scored through a penalty.”
