• Deal for Real Madrid player missed 6pm transfer deadline
• League studying documentation before giving go-ahead
The Premier League hope to reach a decision today regarding Rafael van der Vaart’s proposed £8m move from Real Madrid to Tottenham Hotspur, with the club unsure whether the paperwork reached the governing body in time to beat yesterday’s 6pm transfer window deadline.
Gloucester Place received a deluge of documentation moments before the window officially closed and league officials now need to clarify if Spurs have completed the necessary detail to their satisfaction. Last year Andrey Arshavin’s move from Zenit St Petersburg to Arsenal was ratified 24 hours after the January window had shut.
The Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp, said yesterday that he only realised a deal for Van der Vaart, who played in the World Cup final for Holland, was possible at 4pm.
Redknapp said: “I thought he was going to Bayern Munich for about £18m and suddenly he became 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 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.”
Should the Van der Vaart move gain Premier League approval, the midfielder would become Redknapp’s second deadline-beating signing after Spurs earlier sealed a loan deal for the the Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa.
Tottenham HotspurTransfer windowJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk
