NOW IT REALLY LOOKS LIKE GAME OVER FOR CONTE

ANTONIO CONTE may limp on at Tottenham for a few more weeks or matches, perhaps even until his contract is up at the end of the season, but last night’s Champions League exit felt like the end-game of his underwhelming tenure.

- Dan Kilpatrick

The only positive for Spurs from a pedestrian draw with Milan, who deservedly progressed to the quarter-finals, is that at least now there should be clarity.

If Harry Kane (below) had scored a stoppage-time header — Spurs’s best chance in 173 minutes trailing to the Serie A side — and Spurs had found a way to progress through extra-time or penalties, it would only have prolonged Conte’s pointless and draining tenure.

As it is, there is obviously nothing left for anyone to gain by Conte remaining in the job any longer, although he is due to take tomorrow’s press conference as usual and be in the dugout for Saturday’s home game against Nottingham Forest.

For the best part of a year, Conte has appeared to want a way out, refusing to commit beyond the end of this season and radiating an ‘I’m too good for you’ energy, the manner of someone ashamed of their partner and prone to talking them down in public.