Tottenham fans are right to question the club's strategic partnership with Real Madrid.

And the agreement should be terminated by Spurs immediately out of principle, lest they actually be gaining something from it.

Last week I revealed the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust were demanding talks with chairman Daniel Levy for an explanation as to what it is they are gaining from the agreement.

An online petition, set up by a separate fans group called E-Spurs via the website Change.org, closed before the weekend boasting almost 5,000 signatures, and the THST said it would submit this petition in support of its lobbying of the club.

The supporters trust, and Spurs fans everywhere, are now waiting to see if the club has any response. Tottenham have so far declined the chance to speak to myself and other journalists on the issue, but are thought to be reviewing the partnership internally.

There is indeed no evidence to suggest Tottenham have gained anything from the agreement that was set up as part of Luka Modric's £30million transfer to the Bernabéu in the summer of 2012. The partnership is supposed to see the clubs "work together in respect of players, coaching, best practices and commercial relationships".

This should include prospects like combined pre-season tours and tournaments, or at least a friendly. The only time Tottenham have played Real Madrid since 1985 was when Real knocked Spurs out of the Champions League quarter-finals in 2011. The clubs ventured to separate continents for their pre-season programmes this year.

When clubs set up strategic partnerships, a key ingredient is almost always the option for both clubs to loan players in either direction, and perhaps even secure first refusal to buy certain players permanently. Tottenham have not been loaned a single player from Real Madrid, nor have they acquired one permanently since the agreement was formed. Madrid, of course, have obtained Tottenham's two most talented players in successive seasons.

Gifted players such as the Portuguese left-back Fabio Coentrao, Argentinian winger Angel Di Maria and highly-rated young striker Alvaro Morata were all discussed as possibly venturing to White Hart Lane as part of Gareth Bale's world-record move this summer, but none have joined. The last player Tottenham signed from Real Madrid was Rafael Van der Vaart in 2010.

Another idea that was supposed to be part of the agreement was coaching tie-ups that may have see Spurs youngsters go on summer camps and exchanges to the Spanish capital, but there is no available evidence to suggest this has happened either.

And then there are the very cynical, public tactics Real Madrid employed in order to lure Bale away from Tottenham this summer, despite Levy insisting he would not be sold and a real desire shown by Spurs to have Bale sign a new contract and stay for at least another year.

“A club Tottenham say we have a strategic partnership with has just spent the past four months tapping up our player in the most public way imaginable,” THST joint-chairman Darren Alexander told me last week. “And it has left a sour taste in the mouth of supporters”.

It has left a sour taste in the mouths of many people in English football, it has to be said.

The daily onslaught of media reports does appear to have been fuelled by the La Liga club itself, with numerous Real Madrid players past and present, and the manager Carlo Ancelotti, speaking openly about Bale. The campaign was unprecedented and highly questionable in its ethics and legality. Tottenham do, apparently, feel as though they have been shown little respect – and they are right to feel aggrieved.

But it appears Madrid's sale of German international midfielder Mesut Ozil to arch-rivals Arsenal was the final straw for Tottenham supporters. Although it is not in the spirit of any open, capitalist market for a business to prevent another business from selling a product to a third business, it is not in the spirit of Tottenham's agreement with Real either – one that Spurs have appeared to honour far more than their counterparts.