Kane: Top-four finish ´not enough´ for trophyless Tottenham

Harry Kane says a top-four Premier League finish will not make Tottenham’s season a success, admitting Spurs are “lacking something” as speculation over Antonio Conte’s future grows.

Spurs have seen their hopes of avoiding another trophyless season evaporate within the space of a week, following up an FA Cup loss at Sheffield United with a Champions League exit against Milan.

Tottenham suffered a dire Premier League defeat at Wolves between those two eliminations, and they have now failed to score in three successive games for the first time since a three-match losing run in April and May 2019.

With Spurs now facing a battle for a top-four berth, Kane says a 15th consecutive campaign without silverware is unacceptable.

“Where we’re at as a club, we should be winning trophies,” Kane told reporters. “The top four [being Spurs’ only target] is a consequence of not playing as well as we want to play.

“For sure, it’s not enough for this club. I totally understand the fans’ frustrations. Top four is not good enough for anyone at this club, especially the fans. They have the right to voice their opinion.

“The last week especially just hasn’t been good enough. Before the Sheffield United game, the season could have been a whole lot different.

“You go through there, you take that momentum into the league game and this game [against Milan].

“But I feel like that loss last week put a dagger in our hearts and as you can see, we haven’t really recovered from that.”

Spurs’ expected goals over two legs in a 1-0 aggregate defeat to Milan was only 0.91, and they have failed to win any of their past five Champions League knockout games (D1 L4) since beating Ajax 3-2 at the semi-final stage in 2019.

It has been suggested their latest failure could spell the end of head coach Conte’s tenure at the club, with the Italian accepting Spurs may sack him before his contract expires at the end of the season.

Asked for his thoughts on Conte’s future, Kane said: “It’s his decision, he’s going to be the one that makes that choice.

“All we can do as players is try to perform for him, work as hard as we can. That’s what we’re doing. You can’t fault the effort of the players. We’re just lacking something.

“We’ve talked about mentality before and that ruthless hunger to be better, to be the best, to be one of the best teams in Europe. We just haven’t quite found that yet.”

147 – Tottenham 0-0 Milan has ended Spurs’ run of 147 consecutive home games in all competitions without a goalless draw, since a 0-0 against Swansea at Wembley in the Premier League in September 2017 (5 years and 173 days ago). Drab. pic.twitter.com/pnRC5R64kn

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 8, 2023