Is Van der Vaart the catalyst for Spurs to push on?
At about 5pm on Tuesday 31st August, a post was brewing about what the closure of the transfer window meant for Spurs without the signing of a big name striker. Less than an hour later though, with just minutes to go before the end of the window, hints about the signing of Rafael Van der Vaart started to filter through. Not a striker, but certainly a big name attacking player.
Details emerged throughout the evening, but there was a wait of almost another 24 hours before the transfer was ratified by the Premier League. Many may be dubious about the timing, with Tottenham claiming technical difficulties stopped all the paperwork going through in time, but let’s face it, a similar thing happened when Arsenal signed Arshavin in January 2009 and when Man City signed Benjani in January 2008.
So who is Rafael Van der Vaart? Signed from Real Madrid for £8 million (which seems to be considered a bargain), he’s a Dutch international with 83 caps and 16 goals, starting for Holland in the 2010 World Cup before losing his place in the starting line-up when Arjen Robben returned from injury. Van der Vaart began his career at Ajax, making his debut in 2000 at the age of just 17. Widely considered a Dutch superstar of the future, there was surprise when he moved to Hamburg in 2005. Following three years at Hamburg, he was signed by Real Madrid for €13 million.
Given his career up until now, he brings with him to Spurs a great deal of experience of playing in the Champions League, and the team should get both goals and assists from a player, who at the age of 27, is in his prime, despite being marginalised in the past 18 months at Real.
Compilation of Rafael van der Vaart skills and goals
Moving back to Spurs, the concerns with the club’s attacking options before the signing may seem a bit over the top, but having qualified for the Champions League for the first time, many doubted whether they would have what it takes to push on, or even finish fourth again.
The problem is that, although it would seem there is an embarrassment of riches up front at White Hart Lane; Robbie Keane hasn’t been the same player since he left for Liverpool, Roman Pavlychenko is either brilliant or anonymous, Jermain Defoe is struggling to recapture his form from the first half of last season, and Peter Crouch has never been the most prolific at club level. The four strikers have only scored three goals between them in Spurs’ last 10 league games.
One of the key things holding Spurs back from challenging the top three is an inability to break down teams that come to White Hart Lane looking for a 0-0 draw. Too often, Spurs run out of ideas and then get sucker-punched – It happened against Wigan at the weekend and against Wolves and Stoke last season. This signing could help stop these all too frequent mishaps.
Van der Vaart’s arrival is not without its dilemmas though, with the Spurs first-team squad now boasting an incredible 11 midfielders. The player should allow them to play 4-5-1 in tough away matches, with Van der Vaart supporting a lone striker (possibly Crouch or Pavlychenko), but the question is whether Redknapp will want to upset the established midfielder order at White Hart Lane of Modrić and Huddlestone in the centre, Lennon on the right and Bale on the left. The manager has talked many times about Bale being a future left back rather than left winger, so potentially he will move Modrić out to the left to accommodate the new signing. However, will Spurs want to lose the width and pace that Bale provides and also, where does this leave Palacios and new central midfield signing Sandro?
Only the next few games will tell, but while many consider a world-class striker is what is needed, Spurs have got a potentially world-class attacking midfielder instead. He’s certainly capable of 10-15 goals a season, but can Van der Vaart really be the missing piece of the puzzle to help Spurs build on last season?
