Usually when a big player is sold by Tottenham Hotspur there can be a slight bitter taste - and sometimes even hatred towards the player by fans.

It happened when Teddy Sheringham had enough of mid-table battles and decided Manchester United were the club he could achieve success with, and on the first day of the 1997-98 season his return to White Hart Lane in a Red Devils shirt resulted in huge booing. Sheringham's departure was justified though - two years later he won the Treble.

Sol Campbell was next, although he departed on a free transfer to fierce north London rivals Arsenal and Spurs fans were never going to blame that controversial move on ENIC or chairman Daniel Levy, who had only taken over from Alan Sugar just months prior in 2001.

Since then key players have been cashed in after desiring moves away to more ambitious clubs, including Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United, Robbie Keane to Liverpool (although he would return within six months), Luka Modric and Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, and more recently Kyle Walker and Christian Eriksen to Manchester City and Inter Milan respectively.

In all those cases there was more dissent towards the players for walking out the club rather than staying to help build a team capable of challenging for trophies. Admittedly none of them would get the treatment Sheringham did, and definitely not the hatred Campbell received on all his returns to the Lane.

Barring Keane though, all would leave and go on to win major honours, with Eriksen the latest to finally grab a major medal with the Serie A title at Inter Milan.

You may now expect Tottenham fans to turn their back on Harry Kane, with the striker now wanting to move on from the club where he has spent his entire senior career.

Instead, you are more likely to find Spurs fans finding sympathy with their talisman. It's not because they want him to leave, on the contrary.

Now though there is an understanding. Kane is a world-class striker playing for a club showing no world-class ambitions on the pitch. One trophy inside 20 years of ENIC ownership represents failure on this front.

Kane made his Spurs debut 10 years ago and has been a regular in the side since 2014. Spurs have been runners-up in the Premier League, the Champions League and twice in the League Cup during this period.

But Spurs fans realise the club has hit a competitive ceiling that not even a striker like Kane can help them break through. If he is sold this summer, then fans are far more likely to turn their anger to Levy and the board for their failure to build a world-class team around one of the Premier League's greatest strikers - who emerged through their own academy.

Admittedly, it's not all been a nightmare under ENIC and it's important to note that while just one League Cup in two decades for one of England's biggest clubs is an atrocious record, it does mask important progress the club has made under Levy's stewardship.

In 2001, Spurs were mid-table nobodies. Hopes of playing in the Champions League? Forget it, even qualifying for the UEFA Cup (Europa League in today's money) via league placings was a pipe dream. Relegation was arguably more likely.

White Hart Lane's 36,000 stadium was not a sell-out every week and there were little signs to suggest a team considered a 'sleeping giant' at the time were heading back to the top anytime soon.

1. Tanguy Ndombele (Lyon, £63m)

2. Davinson Sanchez (Ajax, £42m)

3. Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle, £33m)

4. Giovani Lo Celso (Real Betis £29m)

5. Steven Bergwijn (PSV, £27m)

6. Roberto Soldado (Valencia, £27m)

7. Sergio Reguilon (Real Madrid, £27m)

8. Erik Lamela (Roma, £27m)

9. Son Heung-min (Bayer Leverkusen, £27m)

10. Lucas Moura (PSG, £26m)

It didn't change change overnight, but today with one of the best stadiums and best training grounds in Europe, off the pitch Levy has turned the club into an outfit who 'look' like they are about to take on the world.

On the pitch though it's a different story. Fans have been left furious at the way a young team who were playing arguably the best football in the country during the 2016-17 season, where they finished runners-up in the Premier League, has been left to go stale. It's arguable that not one player signed since would be considered of the standard capable of walking into another top six side.

There have been a good few players that have been available too, and it was usually because the sums just didn't add up for Levy that have prevented talent including Jack Grealish, Bruno Fernandes and Paulo Dybala from lining up in a lilywhite shirt.

In 2018, the club became the first team to not sign any players at all during the summer transfer window and when Tottenham do splash out it is usually poor business.

When record £63million signing Tanguy Ndombele arrived last season along with Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon and Jack Clarke, the club spent around £130m. Neither Ndombele nor Lo Celso can consider themselves essential first-team players - Ndombele is lucky to get a kick under interim boss Ryan Mason - while Sessegnon and Clarke are already forgotten men out on loan.

Recruitment has been so bad at Spurs that arguably the last world-class player to arrive through the door was Son Heung-min in 2015 - but even then the South Korean wasn't considered the well-polished star he has gone on to become today.

The point is Tottenham's approach and hit-rate in the transfer market from being runners-up in 2017 does not match a team looking to make a push for the title, establish themselves as a major European force, or even merit a top-four charge.

It's a club trying to buy Harrods goods while shopping in Poundland, and if the manager cannot achieve a Champions League finish on Europa League resources then only one man pays the price - and it's not Levy.

Mauricio Pochettino pleaded for a 'painful rebuild' sensing the staleness of his squad just months prior to his deeply unpopular sacking in 2019 with his side 14th and clearly a shadow of the high-pressing team he had put together a few years prior.

His successor Jose Mourinho got a few new faces but was unable to shed much of Pochettino's dead wood prior to his departure in April just a week before the Carabao Cup final and with his side still in the mix to secure a Champions League spot.

Admittedly Spurs' finances have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, especially with a £1billion stadium to pay for and no fans in the ground on matchday to help pay for it, and also no outside ventures like American Football or music concerts to help plug the financial gaps.

But Levy managed to create more fury from his fanbase during this period by being one of the first clubs to put staff on furlough. Although the backlash proved severe enough to force a U-turn, the furlough move came at the same time it was announced Levy was paid a £3m bonus for the completion of the 62,000 capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, despite it arriving over half-a-year late.

Given Tottenham's decline since 2017, the dismissal of Pochettino and the furlough shambles, Levy's popularity was already at a low ebb even before the European Super League debacle was announced.

Like the rest of the Premier League Big Six owners who signed up for the controversial breakaway, his popularity plummeted further. Such was the extent of anger at Levy at this point that not even the sacking of the unpopular Mourinho could save the Spurs chairman from the backlash caused by the Super League announcement. Fan group the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust even called for an immediate resignation of the board for their involvement in the failed project.

Supporters have been protesting against Levy ever since before home games, with trust between the board and supporters at an all-time low - a relationship again not helped by fans being charged £60 to watch them take on Aston Villa this week.

Having sacked Mourinho nearly a month ago, there are still no major contenders to take over at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and that speaks volumes of the mess the club find themselves in. Even Tottenham fans realise Brendan Rodgers would be mad to walk out on Leicester City to join Spurs following his FA Cup success at the weekend.

Despite all the resources available, many managers now see the Spurs job as a poisoned chalice, perhaps fearful of the budgeting restraints, poor recruitment and the treatment handed to Pochettino and Mourinho in recent seasons. This is an awful reflection of the way the club is being run.

Tottenham fans had already grown impatient with Levy's recent faults regarding squad investment, furloughing staff, joining the Super League and the failure to back Pochettino before sacking him - but selling Kane will be the last straw for them.

Having given many years service for no reward, even Spurs fans wouldn't begrudge 'one of their own' a move that would surely see him pick up long overdue silverware - and be paid more handsomely for it too.

Instead their fury will be directed at Levy for allowing Kane to want to leave in the first place. Kane's departure would be the ultimate symbol of telling the world that Tottenham, under Levy, are going nowhere.