Cristian Stellini apologised to Tottenham fans after a shock FA Cup defeat to Sheffield United.
Spurs were favourites to seal their place in the quarter-finals of the competition, but started Harry Kane on the bench and fell to a 1-0 defeat at Bramall Lane as a goal from Iliman Ndiaye knocked them out. It is the fourth year in a row they have suffered a fifth-round FA Cup exit.
It continues Tottenham’s wildly inconsistent form, with a win over Manchester City followed by a heavy defeat away to Leicester last month, while Sunday’s victory over Chelsea has swiftly been forgotten.
The Champions League is now Tottenham’s only hope of ending their trophy drought this season, though they have a 1-0 deficit to overcome when they welcome AC Milan to north London next week for the second leg of the last-16 clash.
Stellini was once again in charge of Spurs for the trip to face Sheffield United, with Antonio Conte still recuperating from gallbladder surgery.
While there have been a number of highs for Conte’s assistant in his spell been standing in for the Spurs boss, this was a significant low and Stellini bemoaned the lack of energy from his side as he admitted the Tottenham fans deserve more.
“If you don’t win a game like this it’s because something was not perfect and today our energy was not enough to put the opponent in a great difficulty,” Stellini told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“We had opportunities to score, but now we have to analyse the goal we conceded. In the moment, if you concede a goal you need time to recover.
“There was more energy from the changes, but we have to improve a lot.
“I can only apologise to the fans for our performance and they deserve much more than this.”
