Arsenal passed up chance to re-sign Harry Kane as they felt ‘too embarrassed’

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    Arsenal passed up the chance to re-sign Harry Kane to their academy as they felt "too embarrassed" to show their interest again.

    The story of the Tottenham Hotspur captain being released by bitter rivals Arsenal as a 12-year-old is one fans know all too well. Kane spent four years at their academy in Hale End before being let go, coming back to haunt his boyhood club by netting 14 goals in 19 appearances against them as a professional.

    Arsenal academy chiefs infamously felt the striker’s ceiling was hampered by his running and athletic ability.

    READ MORE: ‘Ginger-haired lad’ Kevin De Bruyne trained at Arsenal aged 12 but failed to impress

    Kane, now 29 and third on the all-time Premier League goal-scoring charts, was an Arsenal fan and even attempted to change his position to goalkeeper in a desperate attempt to stay.

    But Gunners coaches were unconvinced, and so the English youngster returned to his Sunday league side Ridgeway Rovers between under-13s and under-15s level.

    The forward went on to join Watford’s academy as a teen and later Spurs, though the Gunners actually had another shot at signing him aged 14 as his lofty potential was becoming clearer.

    Who do you think is the biggest talent Arsenal let go? Let us know in the comments section.

    Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Sport, former Arsenal assistant academy manager Roy Massey said: “One day, the scout who initially brought Harry in rang my colleague and spoke to me.

    “He said ‘come and have another look at Harry Kane, Roy. I know that you let him go but he is scoring a lot of goals for his Sunday team’.

    “We said we already let him go once and we felt a little bit embarrassed to go and watch him again. So we had to stick to our guns. But I now wish we did see him.”

    Arsenal’s long-list of future world class players let go at academy level and beyond has become somewhat of a running joke between fans. At various points, they had the likes of Yaya Toure, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Kevin De Bruyne in their grasps.

    Kane’s ascent to becoming one of the most gifted no.9s on the planet for the better part of a decade is one of the biggest oversights made by Arsenal’s famed academy in the eyes of some.

    Yet the unpredictability of a youngster’s potential and many other external factors such as life experience, puberty and team fit, meant Massey and his fellow youth coaches faced a near-impossible task a lot of the time.

    Massey went on to say on Kane’s development: “He did what many don't. When he went out the door and I told him he wasn't going to be signed, I'm sure he had the determination to say 'Well, I'll prove you wrong Roy Massey'.

    “That's what I told all the youngsters who we let go, ‘you're disappointed now, the disappointment won't last. Prove me wrong and one day you can be a player’.

    “It’s not to say that you're releasing a boy because you don't think he's going to be a player. But at that level, at that time, Harry wasn't quite up to it.”

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