Tottenham’s FA Cup exit has cast further doubt on Harry Kane's long-term future at the club.
Spurs crashed out of the competition with a limp 1-0 defeat to Championship side Middlesbrough in last night's fifth-round tie, going down to Josh Coburn's fierce strike in extra-time.
The club's wait for a trophy will now extend to a 15th season, and they last won the FA Cup way back in 1991.
Kane, who turns 29 in July, has never hidden his desire to win major club honours before the end of his career, ideally with his boyhood club, but he pushed for a transfer to champions Manchester City last summer.
The England captain, who will still have two years remaining on his contract in the summer, is said to be '50/50' on whether to try to force his way out of Spurs again at the end of the season and had made it clear that winning the FA Cup could be a significant factor in his decision.
Kane is understood to have told friends that winning the competition could pave the way for the club to lift further trophies with Antonio Conte, under whom he loves playing.
Kane's decision could ultimately hinge on Conte's own future and whether the head coach is sufficiently backed to overhaul the squad, but last night's result was a blow to Spurs' hopes of avoiding another protracted summer of unrest and speculation.
Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, is understood to have told Conte he will have the financial backing to improve the squad in the off-season following talks in the wake of the Italian's furious outburst at Burnley last week, when he questioned if he was the right man for the job and criticised the players.
Conte arrived at Tottenham with a reputation as a serial winner but their season has now been reduced to a four- or five-team scrap for fourth place.
He insisted he is not concerned about his own reputation, and said his message about the need for hard work and patience would be the same with better players.
"In this moment I'm the last person. I don't think about myself," Conte said. "When I speak with my players and in my team and say that we have to think about 'us', not 'me'. For me, [there's] no problem and for me there is the desire, the will, the patience to try to continue to work very hard to improve, to make this team more stable than the past, because I think this is the key that can change the situation.
Harry Kane through the years
"When your players are the best in the world, [the message] is the same. For sure, I cannot consider my players the best in the world but we work to improve for the future and to try to reflect also on this defeat. For sure, this defeat has to hurt us – me, the players and everyone that works in Tottenham."
