Harry Kane has said a top-four finish alone is "not good enough for anyone" at Tottenham this season and believes the side lacks a "ruthless hunger" to improve, following last night's Champions League exit against AC Milan.
Spurs were eliminated from a second cup competition in the space of a week after being held to a goalless draw by Milan, condemning Antonio Conte's side to 1-0 defeat on aggregate — and raising major doubts about the head coach's immediate future.
Conte afterwards reiterated that he will decide his future with the club when his contract expires at the end of the season but admitted that he could be sacked before then, with an initially promising campaign now reduced to another scrap for fourth place.
Kane, who was rested for the FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Sheffield United last week, is in no doubt about whether Spurs can still count a 15th consecutive season without a trophy as a success.
"No, I don't think so," the England captain told Standard Sport. "Where we're at as a club, we should be winning trophies. That's always the aim. The top four [alone] is a consequence of not playing as well as we want to play. Now that's all we can fight for so that's going to be the goal and hopefully we can achieve that come the end of the season. But for sure, it's not enough for this club."
With Spurs needing a goal to force extra-time, Conte's decision to introduce centre-back Davinson Sanchez for forward Dejan Kulusevski in response to Cristian Romero's 77th-minute sending-off was met by boos from the home crowd, while supporters also vented their frustration at the final whistle.
"I totally understand [fans' reaction]," Kane said. "Top four [alone] 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. If you go through there, you take that momentum into the league game [at Wolves] and this game. 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."
Kane added: "Over the two legs we can't really say we did enough to get through. That's just the reality of it. We need to improve in a lot of aspects and that's the bottom line."
Conte afterwards again refused to be drawn on his plans for the future. "Perhaps they [the club] can send me away earlier [before the end of my contract]. Maybe expectations were higher," said the Italian, who was due to face the media tomorrow and take charge of Saturday's home game against Nottingham Forest.
Asked if Conte's increasingly uncertain position was a distraction, Kane said: "That's his decision, he's going to be the one that makes that choice [on his future]. All we can do as players is try to perform for him, work as hard as we can.
"That's what we're doing. I said after the Wolves game at the weekend, you can't fault the effort of the players. We're trying, we're training but 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."
