Simon Jordan has refused to apologise for his comments about Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane being a bottler.
Jordan was openly critical of the England captain after his costly penalty miss saw the Three Lions crash out of the World Cup last week with the TalkSPORT pundit claiming the Spurs striker indeed bottled it.
This is despite Kane having scored a spot kick not too earlier in the game showing that he does indeed have the nerve and bottle, it was just that split moment he put too much power onto the penalty kick against his club teammate Hugo Lloris.
Jordan attempted to justify his comments live on TalkSPORT as he said:
(0:40) “I did move back into the camp of saying if you succumb to the pressure, which I think Harry Kane did because the goalkeeper didn’t save the ball, Harry Kane put the ball over the bar, then there is an element of succumbing to the pressure that moves to the territory of saying you bottled it a little bit.
“Now, people don’t like that terminology in the same that if you call a footballer a cheat people get most offended by it because it’s terminology you can’t use but I do think if succumbing to the pressure is what you’ve done then there’s an element that you lost your bottle at that particular moment.
Is Harry Kane a bottler?
Yes!
No!
“It doesn’t make you a bottler per se, it means in that moment you were beaten by the circumstances because the goalkeeper didn’t save it Harry Kane put the ball 55 feet over the bar.”
Martin Keown then interrupted Jordan to ask him if he was indeed attempting to apologise for his comments, to which Jordan very quickly responded bluntly with:
(1:20) “No, I’m not apologising.”
TIF Thoughts on Jordan’s Kane comments…
In hindsight, those comments were rather harsh from Jordan given the pressure of an entire nation were all on Kane for a few seconds, not to mention this could perhaps be his last World Cup as a guaranteed starter given his age.
However, Jordan wasn’t saying anything factually incorrect as Kane did indeed bottle the chance to score as he missed, but to come out and label him a bottler live on national radio wasn’t necessary at all.
Kane has scored a number of penalties throughout his career and is indeed England’s joint top scorer of all time, including a goal in the semi-final of last year’s European Championship so he does have the bottle, it was just at that moment it evaded him.