At the end of March, England captain Kane said he would not stay with boyhood club Spurs "for the sake of it".

Those words reportedly set European football's elite on alert but, despite a difficult campaign for last season's Champions League finalist that saw the departure of boss Mauricio Pochettino in November, Pulis believes Kane is well-placed to achieve his goals under Mourinho.

"Tottenham have got to start winning trophies. I don't think you can criticise Kane too much," the former Stoke City, Crystal Palace and West Brom manager said. "He's a top player at international and club level. Over the past three or four years with Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs have been a top team. If you'd said they wouldn't win anything three or four years ago I'd have been surprised - and I am.

"He'll want to win things, he'll want to be ambitious. They say he's really happy at Tottenham. It's a fabulous football club – the new stadium and training facilities are out of this world.

"But the boy wants to win. And he has a manager who wants to win as well.

"They most probably need the backing from Daniel Levy and the club in some way and it'll be difficult because of the financial crisis that has hit the world."

Even though Mourinho's stock has arguably fallen since his glory days in charge of Porto, Chelsea and Inter, Pulis still holds the Portuguese in the highest regard.

"Mourinho is a fantastic manager and his record shows that, given the tools, he can win football matches," he said. "He needs time. The big problem in society today and especially in sport is that people think it will happen overnight.

"Fingers crossed they'll give him time there. If they do that and back him financially, he's proved he is one of the great managers over the past couple of decades.

"Mourinho has got as good a chance as any manager on the planet of getting success there."