Tottenham in late swoop for Real Madrid's Rafael van der Vaart

Posted Wednesday, September 01, 2010 by theguardian.com

Tottenham in late swoop for Real Madrid's Rafael van der Vaart
Tottenham are hoping to pull off a coup with a last-gasp bid for Real Madrid's Rafael van der Vaart.

Tottenham Hotspur hope to discover tomorrow morning if a dramatic last-minute bid to buy the Holland midfielder Rafael van der Vaart from Real Madrid in an £8m deal will be approved by the Premier League.

Harry Redknapp, the Spurs manager, was unable to confirm if the requisite paperwork had reached Gloucester Place before the 6pm deadline. The Guardian understands that a late deluge of documentation for various deals arrived right on the time limit and officials are still working to establish if the Van der Vaart deal made it in time.

"We're waiting to see if it's all gone through and hopefully it has," Redknapp said. "We're just waiting for some clearance. The chairman [Daniel Levy] and the secretary are dealing with it so I've left it to them. There's more nothing [more] I can do. I'm going to head off home now."

After a relatively quiet transfer deadline day in which little business was done among the bigger clubs, Redknapp's attempt, if successful, would represent a coup for Spurs. He explained why the bid had come so late in the day.

"I thought he was going to Bayern Munich yesterday for about £18m and suddenly he become an awful lot cheaper and the chairman came to me and said, 'Look, he's available for around about £8m'.

"I felt we'd already got a good squad, it wasn't a case of really being desperate to get anyone in. It was only when he rung me around at about four o'clock and told me there was an opportunity here and did I want to do something? I said, 'I don't really want to spend your money but if you feel you want to have a go then, well, let's push on and give it a crack and see if we can pull it off."

Redknapp, whose Spurs team are in the Champions League group stages, is in no doubt that the 27-year-old would add depth to his squad.

"He's a quality player, a Dutch international, a great footballer. For that sort of money we felt he was a top player and he'll improve us, for sure, so we made the effort but whether we can pull it off or not I'm not sure now. It could happen; I wouldn't like to say one way or another but we are hopeful it'll go through. It was a last-minute job.

"When I came in this morning it wasn't something we were looking to do. We'd brought a couple in: I got William Gallas and Sandro joined us this morning – he came training for the first time with us today so I wasn't too concerned."

Should the Van der Vaart move gain Premier League approval, the midfielder would become Redknapp's second deadline-day signing after Spurs earlier sealed a loan deal for the Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa from Spartak Moscow.

The 31-year-old, who has won 80 caps for his country and has played in two World Cups and one European Championship, was close to joining Tottenham last summer before an injury scuppered the transfer. However, he won a move this time after impressing during a trial.

Elsewhere, Robinho finally ended his turbulent spell at Manchester City by finalising a £18m move to Milan while the Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan signed for Sunderland from Rennes for a club record fee of £13m.