Ahead of their match against Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers manager Chris Ramsey has lavished praise on striker Harry Kane, saying that the youngster’s rise has not surprised him, while pointing out that initially the club's fans did not want him to play.

Ramsey worked at Spurs youth academy alongside current Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood and QPR’s director of football Les Ferdinand prior to his current role at Loftus Road.




A product of Tottenham Hotspur's youth academy, Kane has enjoyed a phenomenal season under Mauricio Pochettino having notched 24 goals in all competitions so far.

Ramsey believes that Ferdinand played a big part in helping Kane learn the nuances of the game during his time at Spurs' youth academy.
 


“I think Harry learned quite a bit from Les in the training sessions we did there”, the manager said at a press conference.

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When asked how he felt watching Kane’s rapid rise this season, Ramsey said that as a coach he takes great pleasure seeing his former pupil succeed.

He further added that that the Englishman’s rise is no fluke as he puts his maximum effort into training everyday in order to improve his game and the youngster is reaping the rewards of his efforts.

“When you are developing players that’s what you want, and Harry and all the other players that are there they train to their absolute maximum every time they train.”

Ramsey feels that Kane might not be an outstanding athlete, but his technical ability and reading of the game is second to none.

“They [Kane and other Spurs academy graduates] will be great role models for young kids and if you want to get to the top and you see someone like Harry who is not an outstanding athlete, but his technical ability and game awareness is top-notch.”

During Tim Sherwood’s ill-fated five-month tenure at the helm of Spurs last season, he promoted Kane into first team much to the chagrin of the White Hart Lane faithful and Ramsey rues the fact that Spurs’ fans didn’t welcome his introduction in the first team last term.

“When he played him last year the fans didn’t like it, they wanted us to play the galacticos, but we stuck to our guns and got a lot of flak for it.”

On the question of whether Kane’s burgeoning goal tally has taken him by surprise, the QPR manager reiterated that having seen the 21-year-old at close quarters, his prolific scoring is no revelation.

“[With] his level of focus [his goal return] has not surprised me.”

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