Harry Redknapp has shared that Tottenham’s former majority owner, Joe Lewis, once tried to pick his forward line for a big game in 2012.While fans of the newer generation remember the Mauricio Pochettino years as the golden ones, it was Harry Redknapp’s four-year spell at White Hart Lane where Tottenham’s ascent to being a ‘big six’ club began.The experienced English coach guided Spurs to Champions League qualification for the first time in 2010, and the Lilywhites made it to the quarter-finals of the competition the next season, where they were knocked out by Real Madrid.However, the best football that Redknapp’s Spurs side played was arguably in the 2011-12 season when they had a midfield three of Scott Parker, Luka Modric and Rafael Van der Vaart, along with a front line of Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale and Emanual Adebayor.Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesHarry Redknapp reveals Joe Lewis wanted him to start Rafael van der Vaart upfront for Tottenham over Robbie KeaneThe former Spurs manager revealed that Daniel Levy was once relaying a request from Joe Lewis to start Van der Vaart upfront over Robbie Keane.Redknapp shared that he refused to change his plan and stuck to his guns despite being directly contacted by Tottenham’s majority owner.He said on OLBG’s The Jeff Stelling Show (as relayed by Football.London): “We were second in the league, going great. I’d never met Joe Lewis. Joe Lewis owns Tottenham. He was the boss. Daniel, you know, had all the day-to-day stuff. But Joe was the governor, and I’d never met Joe. Then I get a phone call on the way to Stansted Airport on a Friday.“Daniel rings me. He never rang me on a Friday, never interfered. Daniel was good as gold with me. I have to be truthful. I never had a problem with Daniel Levy. I don’t really speak to him now, but I have to be honest, he was fine with me, good with me. But I’m driving to Stansted Airport before a trip to Old Trafford, and we’re second in the league, playing fantastic.“Daniel rings me. He says, ‘Harry, who are you going to play up front tomorrow?’ We had a few injuries. I said, ‘Robbie Keane’. He said, ‘Robbie Keane?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Why?’ He said, ‘Oh, I’m just a bit surprised. Did you not think to ask Rafa van der Vaart who he wants to play with?’ I said, ‘What’s it got to do with Rafa van der Vaart, Daniel? I pick the team, not Rafa’. ‘Well, I thought it might be interesting.’ ‘No, not really. I’m not interested. I’m playing Robbie.’“So I get to the hotel that night in Manchester. My phone goes. It’s Ivana, Joe Lewis’s secretary. ‘Hello, Ivana’, ‘Joe wants to speak to you.’ ‘Yeah, sure’. ‘Hello, Harry boy, how you doing, son?’ ‘Yeah, I’m all right, Joe.’ He said, ‘I love our forward line. Lennon, Pavlyuchenko, Van der Vaart, Gareth Bale. Good forward line’. He said, ‘That Robbie Keane’s useless, right?’ I said, ‘That’s your opinion, Joe, innit.’“He said, ‘He don’t even know the offside rule’. I said, ‘I think he does, Joe. He’s scored X amount of goals.’ He said, ‘I tell you what, if he plays tomorrow, I won’t even watch the game on television. ‘ I said, ‘That’s your choice, Joe’. And I knew then that was after Christmas; I thought, ‘I could be in trouble here.’Redknapp claims Daniel Levy did not want to see him go The 79-year-old eventually lost his job at the end of the 2011-12 season after Tottenham had a poor end to the season and had to settle for fourth.Chelsea, who finished 7th that campaign, ended up winning the Champions League, which meant that Spurs did not qualify for the competition, but Redknapp believes that his decision to start Keane at Old Trafford may have had an impact on the club’s decision.He continued: “Obviously I played Robbie the next day and Daniel again said, ‘Why don’t you ask Rafa who he wants to play with?’ Same answer again. But I knew that if things didn’t go right, the slightest slip, I was gone.“I think Daniel was actually choked to see me go, if I’m truthful. I think he was probably fighting my corner. I’m not sure, but I certainly never had any problems with Daniel. Joe obviously had that issue with me playing Robbie Keane.”READ MORE: Pedro Porro to Barcelona? Tottenham right-back’s future could be decided this seasonThe post ‘I managed Tottenham for four years and Joe Lewis once tried to pick my starting XI’ appeared first on Spurs Web.