Tottenham‘s wait for a major trophy continues – they won the League Cup in 2008 – and Spurs have now exited the FA Cup at the fifth-round stage four years in a row after defeat at Sheffield United.
And unless Spurs can pull off something special against AC Milan next week when they try to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the second leg of their round of 16 Champions League tie at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, another trophy-less season beckons.
Head coach Antonio Conte missed his side’s latest exit from a cup competition as he recovers from gallbladder surgery, so it was left to assistant head coach Cristian Stellini to serve up another apology to the club’s fans.
He said: “I think we missed a big opportunity, and we have to apologise to the fans. There were 5,000 of them here to watch our performance and we apologise because we missed a big opportunity.”
It’s a story that many of those Spurs fans have heard before over the past 15 years.
There has been many a painful cup exit over the years with Spurs failing to get past the fifth round in the last five years, including last year’s extra time defeat to another Championship side in Middlesbrough.