LONDON // Mauricio Pochettino hailed Harry Kane for the two late goals that earned Tottenham Hotspur a 3-2 London derby win at home to West Ham United.
Kane struck with a minute to go at White Hart Lane on Saturday before converting a penalty 160 seconds later as Spurs maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign.
It was also Tottenham’s first win since beating Manchester City on October 2, at a time when England striker Kane was injured.
Kane had also scored on his comeback in the 1-1 draw at Arsenal before the international break and confirmed his status as Tottenham's main goal supply in this derby.
“He is back,” said Tottenham manager Pochettino of Kane. “For me, he is one of the best strikers in the world. He is a player who is very important for us.
“It was fantastic to see Harry Kane score again.”
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West Ham, who remain a point and place above the relegation zone, twice took the lead before Kane sunk them and, to make matters worse, defender Winston Reid was sent off in stoppage time.
Michail Antonio’s header gave the visitors a half-time lead and, after Harry Winks had marked his first Premier League start with a Tottenham equaliser, Manuel Lanzini’s penalty restored the advantage.
Tottenham, who remain fifth, were not to be denied however.
“People expect a lot from us, that we will play well, score goals and win the games,” Pochettino said.
“But there is no team that can keep to the same level for 10 months,” the Argentine added.
“Today we were better, that’s the truth: we were better than West Ham. One team deserved to win the game at the end and that was Tottenham, no doubt, but maybe we can play better.
“I don’t know if I can say we are happy with the performance but we showed character today. Maybe it wasn’t our best game but sometimes it is difficult against an aggressive team with a good plan.”
Tottenham’s penalty was won by substitute Son Heung-min, whose cross had set up Kane for the equaliser. The South Korean tricked Havard Nordtveit into tripping him with the final whistle just seconds away.
“You can imagine how difficult it is to take this kind of defeat, in the lead with four minutes to go,” said West Ham manager Slaven Bilic. “It looked good for us.
“We had good opportunities to kill the game off. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”
Bilic added he had no complaints about the incident that led to Tottenham’s winning goal.
“It was a clever move from Son,” he said. “Our player slides and Son was waiting for the contact.”
West Ham now face Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool in the Premier League, and United again in the League Cup but Bilic remained optimistic.
“We showed today we can play,” he said. “We can play good no matter who we are playing. It’s a tough schedule. There are a lot of positives before these games. We don’t have to be afraid of any of them.”
* Agence France-Presse
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
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Everton 1 Stoke City 0
Everton (Rooney 45 1')
Man of the Match Phil Jagielka (Everton)
