Perched high above Tottenham Hotspur’s magnificent new stadium is a giant Golden Cockerel.

Once it stood proudly, but last night Spurs fans swore it bowed its head in shame.

Whatever, it certainly wasn’t crowing.

Spurs had just surrendered – there’s no other word for it – to AC Milan in the Champions League Round of 16.

The Lilly-whites have become lily-livered.

This is especially gutting for fans when the club motto is “To Dare is To Do.”

Against Milan, they didn’t dare – let alone do – anything of note.

If only they could have shown the resistance their original mascot displayed at the old White Hart Lane.

The battered old cock survived volleys from German planes during the wartime blitz.

And the Luftwaffe were not the only ones who shot at it: Paul Gascoigne was even more accurate with an air rifle!

The latest capitulation means it will be 15 seasons since the club won a trophy (the League Cup in 2008) as they’re out of everything now.

They’re also out of excuses.

And all this while a rampant Arsenal have surged five points clear at the top of the table.

St Totteringham’s Day (when Spurs can no longer mathematically catch their neighbours) will come early this season.

And it was after those other London rivals Chelsea overturned a similar 1-0 deficit to reach the last eight the night before.

Barring a miracle, they can’t win the league. They lost to second-tier Sheffield United in the FA Cup after fielding a weakened team.

This was after being knocked out of the League Cup by doing likewise against newly-promoted Forest.

Forest hosted Wolves in the next round while Sheffield United entertain Blackburn Rovers.

Both competitions would open up invitingly but Spurs were no longer on the guest list.

You would think they’d have learned their lesson, but no: Harry Kane was a bit-part player in both.

Nor have they been good enough in either of the major events. And so, the wait goes on.

It was years ago that the word “Spursy” entered the football lexicon.

According to Wikipedia it’s an “adjective derived from the noun ‘Spursiness’.”

It “denotes a certain fragility in the team that consistently fails to live up to expectations and crumble within sight of victory.”

These are definitions with which Spurs fans are all too familiar.

Although ‘long-suffering’ is their middle name, last night was when they couldn’t take the pain any longer.

Anger was directed more at the board than the dugout, though, manager Antonio Conte being spared much of the vitriol for having just had his gallbladder removed.

But Conte’s modus operandi must catch some of the blame.

Famously reactive, he likes to cede possession and hit on the counter.

The method may even suit star strikers Kane and Son Heung-min.

But it goes some way to explaining why Spurs seldom seem to turn up in the first half.

Yes, they’ve made some stirring comebacks but had they started playing earlier, they may have enjoyed a more successful season.

This two-legged tie was a case in point. Spurs treated not only the entire first leg as if it was the first half, but the first half of the second-leg as well.

And in the final 45 minutes, when still needing a goal to bring the tie level, they actually took off an attacker, Dejan Kulusevski, and brought on a defender, Davinson Sanchez.

Admittedly, this was after Cristian Romero had committed hara- kiri by getting himself sent off, but still.

No wonder they never came near to laying siege to the Milanese goal.

Conte looked a shadow of his manic former self.

He’s had a bad time of it lately, losing three of his best friends, and feared he might be joining them.

Spurs’ fitness coach Gian Piero Ventroni and former playing colleague Sinisa Mihajlovic died of leukaemia, while the legendary Gianluca Vialli fell to pancreatic cancer.

But even before that, Conte did not seem to have the fire of his first season or when winning the EPL title in his debut campaign at Chelsea.

He is clearly a top manager but whether he still has the appetite for the fray – and whether he is the right fit for Spurs – is questionable.

To be fair, Spurs tried everything to show they belong among Europe’s elite.

They built one of the world’s great stadiums, hired a top boss, a Brazilian World Cup striker in Richarlison and kept hold of Kane.

Whether they can still hang on to their talisman is the subject of renewed debate.

Thirty in July, the England skipper may feel he has little time left to win anything and may want to leave even though he still has four more years on his contract.

He missed the boat with Pep Guardiola and Man City but United is constantly mentioned as a possible destination.

With the likelihood of new owners at Old Trafford before next season, he could be their opening gift to the club.

As for Richarlison, he has been almost criminally under-used and has not fitted into any kind of partnership with Kane.

As Spurs fans trudged out of the ground on a cold, rainy London night, it struck them that only major surgery and a new manager could repair the damage.

Only under Mauricio Pochettino have they come close to erasing “Spursy” from the football dictionary and more than a few would welcome the Argentinian back.

He hasn’t worked since quitting Paris Saint-Germain and is known to love the club.

Second comings often don’t work, but this is Spurs after all. He gave them their best days of recent years.

They could do a lot worse.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.