Monday, 13 September 2010

Arsenal turned down the opportunity to sign Rafael van der Vaart

It's emerged that Arsenal scouts ran the rule over Rafael van der Vaart during the Summer with a view to us signing Holland international.

The midfielder was watched a number of times by representatives of the club who wanted to see whether the 27-year-old had what it took to be an Arsenal player.

His compatriot Robin Van Persie had alerted Arsene Wenger to the possibility the former Real Madrid star was available and Wenger tasked members of his scouting team with analysing whether he would fit into the Arsenal system.

Van Persie was desperate his international team mate joined us but it was not to be.

Arsenal decided his work rate was poor and that with Cesc Fabregas staying at Ashburton Grove, there was no need to sign van der Vaart.

Instead the midfielder ended up playing his football in England, but on the other side of north London, with a deadline day move to Tottenham.



  1. Welldone to get the news first man.Any source from where you got it pls? Maybe as Robben said, RVP will be disappointed we didn't sign him

  2. To be honest, I don'think we need him and I'm happy we didn't sign him.
    Firstly, I think he's past his prime and as you said before, his work rate isn't great, something vital in the PL and in Arsenal.
    Secondly, Holland got into the final without him, and when he was on the pitch in the final, his poor defending allowed Iniesta to score!
    Finally, we already have a lot of creative midfielders that are a lot younger, Ramsey, Wilshere, Diaby, Nasri and I was reading some stats that when Denilson is in the creative role when Cesc isn't fit and Song is defensive mid, then his passing is good and he has a better scoring rate than anyone else in that position, even Cesc!

  3. One thing that few people mention is just how often VdV gets substitutes at around the 70 minute mark. He does not have a great workrate, but he also seems to have phenomenally poor stamina. He is a mercurial talent, and will score some lovely goals from outside the box, but overall I am glad we did not get him.

  4. Now that we have a rejuvenated Tomas Rosicky - there is no way that we needed RvdV

    Before I saw Tomas this season, I might have been inclined to believe that even without him, the presence of Nasri, as well as Fabregas, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Vela and Arshavin was already too many attack-minded midfielders, given that you can only really play 3 or 4 of them in one game and Fabregas will always be the first name on the sheet; adding Rosicky into the mix gives us 9 players for 3 or 4 places, so VdV really is not needed - good luck Spurs - looking forward to watching you play in the Big League tonight (and getting murdered, of course!)