Mauricio Pochettino has dismissed claims Harry Kane could be a one-season wonder and believes he is enjoying a breakthrough campaign similar to Wayne Rooney.
Striker Kane has struck 35 goals this season - his debut goal for Roy Hodgson’s full England team last week, five for the Three Lions' Under-21 side and 29 for the White Hart Lane club.
Some cynics are reserving judgement on the 21-year-old marksman, who has had loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester and only scored his first Premier League goal last April, to see whether he can reproduce anything like that form next term.
But Spurs boss Pochettino has insisted his new star striker is the real deal.
The Argentine said: “Big players always have a good first season - like [Wayne] Rooney.
“After his first season, a lot of people maybe had doubts about the next one but this is football. People have doubts, this is what it is like.
“He [Kane] is a reality. There may be people who doubt him about next season but the people that know him understand, like us, that Harry can keep the level he has shown.”
After eight goals in his debut season, the 2002-03 campaign, Rooney hit 14 goals in all competitions as an Everton player to earn a call-up to Euro 2004.
There, he scored four goals in two games for England to confirm his towering potential.
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Kane headed his first goal for his country last Friday night against Lithuania to widespread acclaim.
Pochettino, an accomplished defender for Argentina as a player, believes sees a hint of his legendary countryman Gabriel Batistuta in Tottenham academy star Kane.
He said: “He has skills that are similar to different players, including Batistuta.
“Harry Kane has shown his qualities over four or five months, scoring a lot of goals in the Europa League and different cups, but Harry Kane is a reality now, there is no doubt that he has arrived and he can keep up the level.”
Pochettino has also insisted he was right to delay Kane’s first start of the Premier League season until November.
