I'LL SUPPORT YOU EVERMORE

Obika once had Harry and Andros to set up his goals .. now Well coach is helping others

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THERE was a time when Jon Obika fed off the service of Harry Kane.

It might seem a lifetime ago for the Motherwell coach.

But it's how he made his big breakthrough as a teenager at his boyhood heroes Spurs.

These days though?

Obika is happiest playing the support role for others. That's why he's known around Fir Park as Gentleman Jon.

At the age of 33, five years before he planned to hang up his boots, the striker agreed to call time on his playing career and accept an offer to become first-team coach at Well.

That proposal caught him off guard. The Englishman admits he felt like he was losing his identity when he shook hands on the deal with then boss Stuart Kettlewell last May.

After all, he had played 417 games, scored 87 goals and won two England Under-20 caps in the previous 16 years.

He could have chosen to play on elsewhere.

But deep down, no matter the emotion attached to kissing goodbye to his playing days, Obika knew it was the best way for him to continue making an impact.

By supporting others.

Yet rewind around 16 years and England's record scorer Kane was the guy who laid on goals for HIM.

Coming through the Spurs youth system, Obika was the striker applying the finishing touch to the magic created by others - namely Kane, Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason.

Such was his stock by the age of 18 that another Harry, Redknapp, handed him a full debut in a crucial UEFA Cup last-32 tie against Shakhtar Donetsk beside Gareth Bale.

There's no Flash Harry about Obika though. That simply wouldn't wash with the Steelmen where Jens Berthel Askou is building something special.