Ben Davies has stated that a Championship League finish must be Tottenham's baseline at the beginning of a campaign. Currently in fourth but missing out on the opportunity to open up a six-point lead over Liverpool following Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Wolves, their latest loss came three days after their humiliating FA Cup exit at the hands of Sheffield United.
Missing out on a glorious opportunity to reach Wembley with the Blades now coming up against fellow Championship side Blackburn Rovers in the quarter-finals, Spurs' last remaining hope of winning silverware this season is in the Champions League. The Lilywhites head into the second leg of their Round of 16 tie against AC Milan 1-0 down and a second cup exit in the space of a week will be on the cards unless they manage to overturn the deficit.
Desperate to end their trophy hoodoo after last lifting silverware back in 2008, Davies has admitted that the club want to win trophies, but they've let that opportunity slip this season.
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“It’s a tough question. Our ambitions are obviously a bit more than that," said the Welshman when asked if fourth place alone is enough for Tottenham. "We want to win trophies, we’ve let that slip this year. Champions League is a good achievement, that’s where the club wants to be year in, year out. That has to be our baseline."
Wednesday's defeat at Sheffield United was a carbon copy of their FA Cup fifth round exit at the hands of Middlesbrough 12 months earlier. When pushed on why the shock cup exits keep happening, Davies admitted that it's hard to put a finger on why.
“It’s tough to say, I wish I could give a clear answer. It’s not for the lack of trying," he said. "It is a tough place to go in midweek, they made it very difficult for us. We didn’t control the game as well as we could have done.
“It had 0-0 written all over it, we didn’t create enough and they didn’t really apart from their chance. We could have managed the game a bit better but it’s tough to put your finger at why.”
On the back-to-back defeats over the past week, he added: “We’ve probably controlled games better than we have for a while. It is just we have not been able to capitalise on those moments when we’ve had the ball in the opposition half.
“It’s one of those things, we have an opportunity to put things right very quickly. We hope to do that Wednesday."
Tottenham will be boosted by the return of Antonio Conte on Wednesday evening after his time in Italy recovering from gallbladder surgery at the start of February. Last in the dugout for the first game against the Rossoneri three weeks ago, the Italian was told to rest again after staying behind in his homeland following the defeat for a post-operation check.
Still having an input from home while Cristian Stellini took on first-team duties, Davies has opened up on Conte's return and praised the assistant head coach for his work over the past few weeks.
“Yeah we’re really looking forward to getting him back," revealed the long-serving player. "It’s been a while now but we have a huge game Wednesday and it is very important he is with us.
“It’s obviously very strange but we’ve been in very capable hands with Cristian Stellini. The manager wasn’t too far away, he’s been there as a point of contact. It will be good to have him back.
“Cristian’s a coach but he is a good manager as well. When he speaks he speaks passionately and everyone has a lot of respect for him. We needed that. It obviously was not a good result [vs Wolves]."
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