Harry Kane outlines importance of Champions League in Tottenham’s top-four bid

Harry Kane has outlined the importance of him playing in the Champions League as Tottenham launch a late bid to crack the Premier League top four.

The England captain tried to leave Spurs last summer in order to win trophies and play at the highest level following the club’s alarming slide and, after another trophyless season, Kane is unlikely to settle for another year in second or third-tier European competitions.

If Tottenham could qualify for the Champions League – their cause was helped by a 5-0 thumping of Everton on Monday – and they can keep Antonio Conte happy, then they might also be able to keep their star striker content.

Kane, who scored twice in the Everton defeat, has spoken at length about how much he is enjoying working under Conte and has called on his side to “take responsibility” and get back to “where we think the club should be”.

He said: “The manager is a fantastic coach, I’ve said that now on many occasions.

“I really enjoy working with him, so it’s down to us players to take that responsibility. A lot of us want to be playing in the Champions League.

“We haven’t played in it now for a couple of years but it’s where we think the club should be.

“So there’s a lot of hard work to go. It’s not just about one result because we’ve had good results like this, this season already.

“It’s about putting together a run of four, five results in a row. Obviously we’ve got another tough game on Saturday (at Manchester United).

“If we want to move forward as a team, it’s about taking responsibility and we can’t hide away from it.

“Obviously there’s 12 games left now so there’s still a lot of opportunity to pick up points and it’s just down to being more consistent. That’s what we’ve got to try to do until the