Gary Neville believes Daniel Levy may have pushed Harry Kane closer towards the Tottenham Hotspur exit by furloughing staff during the coronavirus lockdown.

Spurs were one of the first Premier League clubs to implement pay cuts across their non-playing staff, with all employees including directors taking a 20 per cent reduction and furloughed where appropriate in order to save money during football’s enforced shutdown.

The move was quickly followed by Kane admitting that he could look to leave Spurs if they remain trophyless in the coming seasons, with the England captain having ambitions to win silverware while he can before the end of his career.

But Neville believes that Kane’s admission came as a response to Levy’s actions in something of a reminder that they should be a club who lead by example, rather than doing what’s best for business, in how they treat their players and staff.

Speaking on a videoconference on Sky Sports News alongside Jamie Redknapp and presenter David Jones from their homes, Neville said: “In terms of Harry Kane, Jamie knows Harry Kane better than I do but I did work with him with England and I think he’s a clever lad, he’s not somebody who would get caught out if he didn’t want to say something so the little opening of the door that he left in that Instagram piece with Jamie I think was probably something that had something in it.

“What I would also say for me is that I don’t think Harry Kane would’ve been that impressed with his club a couple of weeks ago with what they did. I think he’s a good lad Harry Kane, he’s a solid lad and I think he won’t have taken that particularly well and he was probably just poking them back. In my mind, I don’t know for sure and I’ve not spoken to him but I think he’ll have been warning them and sort of saying ‘just be careful because I’m watching you and that’s not what we do’.”

Redknapp went further than Neville in accusing Levy of holding Tottenham back from joining the biggest clubs in the Premier League in order to save money, which he believes has played a part in Kane teasing a possible departure when they spoke last week.

“I think Gary’s right, he’d have been extremely disappointed with Tottenham,” Redknapp said. “Having been around Tottenham and played for Tottenham for a while it doesn’t surprise me how Daniel Levy acted in this. You learn a lot about someone in difficult times and he was one of the first to furlough staff. I think no doubt at all he’d have been disappointed by that but I certainly wasn’t surprised.”

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Redknapp was asked by Jones whether the fact that Levy sacked his father, Harry Redknapp, as manager of Spurs in 2012 played a part in his heavy criticism of the club chairman, but the former midfielder explained that their differences go further back to when he played for the club as well, on top of the numerous players who have fallen out with him at the club and eventually left as a result.

“He gives me a lot of opportunities (to criticise him), that’s the problem, and having been there I think … it’s nothing personal,” Redknapp explained. “Having been there, people have levelled with me and said ‘maybe it’s because he sacked your dad’ but it was such a long time ago and I have to be honest, so much has happened since then, I just feel like at times they don’t act like a big club like they should do.

“The way that they acted this week - other clubs have done it, Newcastle, Norwich, I get that - but Tottenham financially have got plenty of money behind them and it just didn’t sit right with me. There’s been plenty of times with the way that they look after players and look after staff when I was there, it was very disappointing and unfortunately it’s arisen again. I think Daniel’s a really good businessman but in terms of negotiating it’s very, very different times and that’s why you see a lot of players unhappy there and a lot of players who want to leave and that’s why I feel the club, the fans, the players deserve a lot better than what they get sometimes.

“Yes he’s spent a lot of money on the stadium and the training ground but I feel if they really want to push on and they’ve had the ability and the possibility to do that, and Daniel Levy hasn’t pushed the button because he doesn’t want to have to spend the money to push them to the next level, so he does things on the cheap sometimes. That’s why, it’s got nothing to do with a personal thing at all.”

Manchester United have been strongly linked with a move for Kane for a number of years, and Neville added that he believes the signing of the 26-year-old forward would fit in with their transfer policy over the last three decades in signing the best domestic talent possible.

“What I would say is it fits Manchester United’s historical transfer (policy) going right back to Bryan Robson, Roy Keane, trying to sign Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney,” Neville added.