Has Rafael van der Vaart signed for Tottenham in time?
The transfer window closed yesterday, and Tottenham are hoping they signed Rafael van der Vaart before the 18.00GMT deadline.
The Dutchman was made available after his move from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich for £18million collapsed. Tottenham were alerted to the situation, and made an £8million bid for the 27-year-old.
Tottenham are hoping they submitted the paperwork in time and are waiting for the deal to be approved by the Premier League.
When leaving the club’s training ground last night, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said: “We're waiting to see if it's all gone through and hopefully it has. 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 nothing [more] I can do. I'm going to head off home now.”
Redknapp revealed yesterday it was going to be a quiet day in the transfer market for Tottenham, but suddenly the deal was on, and if he was able to pull off the transfer, it would be one of the signings of the summer. “When I came in this morning it wasn't something we were looking to do.
“I thought he was going to Bayern Munich yesterday for about £18million and suddenly he become an awful lot cheaper and the chairman came to me and said, 'Look, he's available for around about £8million’.”
Tottenham, who have qualified for the Champions League, would be helped by the addition of Van der Vaart who has plenty of experience in Europe’s elite competition, playing for Ajax, Hamburg and Real Madrid, as well as winning 80 caps for his country.
“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,” said Redknapp.
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