Harry Redknapp claims that Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis branded Robbie Keane \u201cuseless\u201d and vowed to tune out of a match at Manchester United if the Irishman started.<\/p>\n
Redknapp, speaking ahead of his horse The Jukebox Man going into Cheltenham\u2019s Gold Cup on Friday as favourite, believes his days at Spurs was numbered after defending Keane.<\/p>\n
Bar a brief spell at Liverpool, the Dubliner spent nine years at Spurs to become a cult hero.<\/p>\n
As well as captaining the club, became only one of 17 players to hit 100 goals for Spurs, reached 300 appearances and, most memorably, helped lift the Carabao League Cup in 2008 having dispatched of Arsenal 5-1 in the semi-final, second leg.<\/p>\n
Redknapp took charge a few months after that triumph, lasting four years before his controversial sacking.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s adamant the hierarchy\u2019s attitude towards him changed following involvement from then executive director Daniel Levy and famously reclusive owner Lewis.<\/p>\n
Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart was even cited as having a walk-on role in the episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never told anybody this but you want to know what really happened to me at Tottenham?\u201d the 78-year-old told the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played Man United at Old Trafford, October 2010 and we were flying in the table. I\u2019m on my way to Stansted Airport to fly up to Manchester and I get a phone call from Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, Daniel never rung me on a Friday, never interfered with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel said, \u2018Hello, Harry. It\u2019s Daniel.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Hello, Daniel,\u2019 I said. \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m fine. We have a few injuries.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Who are you gonna play up front tomorrow?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Robbie Keane.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Robbie Keane?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, Robbie Keane.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you speak with Rafael van der Vaart about who he wants to play with?<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018What\u2019s it got to do Rafael van der Vaart, Daniel? I pick the team, not Rafael van der Vaart.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Well, I thought it\u2019d be interesting to see what Rafa thought, you know.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018No, not really,\u2019 I said, \u2018Robbie Keane\u2019s playing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Redknapp realised the background machinations once he landed in Manchester.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019m checking into the hotel and – at this point, I\u2019ve never spoke with Joe Lewis, the owner, not once in my life – but the phone rings.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Hi Harry, it\u2019s Joe Lewis\u2019s secretary, Joe would like to speak with you.\u2019<\/p>\n
“\u2018Hello, Joe.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe comes from the Burdett Road in east London \u2013 that\u2019s where I came from.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe says, \u2018I like that forward line of yours, [Aaron] Lennon, Van der Vaart and [Roman], Pavlyuchenko. That Robbie Keane is useless.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018That\u2019s your opinion, Joe,\u2019 He then said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you ask Rafael van der Vaart who he wants to play with? I said, \u2018What\u2019s it got to do with Rafael van der Vaart? I pick the team, not Van der Vaart.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI will tell you what Joe then said to me. \u2018If Robbie Keane plays tomorrow, I won\u2019t even watch it on television.\u2019 That choice is up to you, Joe,\u2019 I said. \u2018Yeah, it f***ing is,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRobbie Keane worked his socks off at Tottenham, and I never had a problem with Rafa, who was great for Tottenham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redknapp, who managed a string of clubs including West Ham United, Portsmouth and QPR, is adamant he was on borrowed time after that exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that conversation was the end for me,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finished fourth in the Premier League next season, but lost our place in the following season\u2019s Champions League because Chelsea, who had finished sixth, went to Munich for the Champions League final and beat Bayern.<\/p>\n
\u201cBayern missed a penalty in extra time before Chelsea won on penalties.<\/p>\n
After the game they kept the Chelsea supporters inside the ground and we had to walk behind the goal where they were. They\u2019re all singing to me, \u201cThursday night Channel 5, Thursday night, Channel 5\u201d because that is where and when you had the Europa League.<\/p>\n
\u201cA month later I was sacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keane, 45, is currently managing Hungarian champions and league leaders Ferencv\u00e1ros but has been linked to a Tottenham return as boss. Doubts have crept in over caretaker manager Igor Tudor as Spurs slump dangerously close to the relegation zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Redknapp claims that Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis branded Robbie Keane \u201cuseless\u201d and vowed to tune out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,5783,112],"class_list":["post-337133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-premiership","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}