“Dagger in heart” - How Sheffield United loss led to Tottenham Hotspur Europe exit

Harry Kane believes Tottenham Hotspur’s FA Cup defeat at Sheffield United derailed his side’s season long before their Champions League exit at the hands of AC Milan earlier this week, describing the 1-0 reverse at Bramall Lane as “a dagger in our hearts”.

Spurs’ hopes of winning a trophy were ended for another season after a 0-0 draw with Milan saw them knocked out of the Champions League, just over a week after losing to a United side who had made eight changes for the FA Cup clash.

How snow forecast could affect Blades v Luton amid postponement fears

Spurs were booed off the pitch after being knocked out of the Champions League and England skipper Kane said: “Where we are at as a club, we should be winning trophies. “That’s always the aim.

“To be brutally honest, I don’t think we deserved to win. Now the top four being our only target is a consequence of not playing as well as we want to play.

“I totally understand the fans’ frustration. 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.

United takeover state of play after would-be owner’s latest show of support

“You go through there, you take that momentum into the league game at Wolves and this game ... suddenly it’s different. But I feel like that [United[ loss last week put a dagger in our hearts and as you can see we haven’t really recovered from that.

“For me, we just lack a little bit of hunger and desire to get onto the scoresheet, to be better and to make sure we are affecting games. It is not enough at this level just to be on the pitch and play half-decent and not affect the games. That is kind of where we are at at the minute.

“We have got to be more effective, especially in the final third. We are getting into good positions but we are just not taking control of that.”

United’s big rivals Boro could face fight to keep hold of boss Carrick

Asked why, Kane said: “It’s hard to put a finger on it,” he said. Especially over the last week we’ve lacked quality in key moments against teams that we’ve had good opportunities against.

“Not just opportunities where you’re one-on-one with the keeper but opportunities where you’re in a good position on the pitch and we need more from all of us. To be more direct, more clinical.

Further injury frustration for Blades man as he faces another spell on sidelines

“In the last three games, we haven’t scored a goal and that’s not good enough. 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."