Van der Vaart for £20m? Be Real-istic

Rafael van der Vaart is a quality player. He was a star at Ajax, lit up Hamburg but didn’t quite shine for Real Madrid.

Whilst some news outlets reported he had signed for Real for for 13million euros (£10.3m), others stated it was as little as £8m so why now is a figure of £20m being quoted by newspapers claiming we are looking to bring the Dutch play maker to Old Trafford?

This is either poor journalism or Real Madrid have gone mad as van der Vaart is hardly an integral player in their team. Last summer he was deemed surplus to requirements as Real Madrid flexed their muscles in the transfer market and was told by Manuel Pellegrini that he was not in the club’s first team plans. His squad number (23) was given to Esteban Granero in preseason but after the squad size was cut down following what was known as the ‘Dutch exodus’ he remained and regained his old number.

But where as Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder moved and the latter two experienced success away from the Bernabeau this season, van der Vaart stayed,  remaining on the fringes of the team starting just 18 games.

Last summer we could have signed the Dutch player for way less than £20m so why has his fee suddenly inflated?

Sir Alex has constantly spoken of the lack of value in the transfer market and last summer he refused to meet Lyon’s valuation of Karim Benzema because of this, so why would he go and pay x amount of millions more for a player he could have got for cheaper last season?

Obviously some will say well it wasn’t so apparent that we needed him last season and I agree but that doesn’t account for why his fee has suddenly risen as if he had a stellar season. In his 30 appearances he scored 7 goals and grabbed 6 assists which isn’t bad but also isn’t great and the mere fact that he is in the position he is at the Bernabeau means he should not command such a high transfer fee.

This is the one thing about the deal that stumps me and if Sir Alex’s words about not being held to ransom in the transfer market were not actually spin on the no money situation then he should not press for the transfer.

At this current time the max we should pay for van der Vaart, and I say max, is £15m, anything above that would be farcical even though I do not doubt his ability.

If we are in fact looking at him, I eagerly await the conclusion to this deal as it can be used as an indicator to where the club stands financially as well as providing an insight into Sir Alex’s utterances.