Tottenham Hotspur are still waiting anxiously for a decision by the Premier League whether the proposed £8 million deal for Real Madrid midfielder Rafael van der Vaart will be allowed to go through with the club uncertain if they had gotten the paperwork through in time to the governing body. The transfer deadline was at 6pm on Tuesday and it was only a couple of hours before then that Spurs had gotten down to thrashing out the move.

The Premier League received tons of documentations just before the deadline passed yesterday and officials are scrambling to clarify if Spurs have provided the necessary information on the deal to suit official requirements. The White Hart Lane outfit are still confident that they can have the Dutch World Cup star join them for the new season and last year, Arsenal’s proposed transfer of Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg was also ratified only 24 hours after the January window had closed.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp had revealed that he had only gotten wind of a possible deal for Van der Vaart two hours before the deadline, at 4pm.

“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 said.

The Spurs manager insisted that the 27-year-old playmaker would be a quality addition to the squad and remains confident that the deal will be ratified by the Premier League.

“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.” added Redknapp.

Should the Van der Vaart move gain Premier League approval, the midfielder would become the club’s second deadline-beating signing after Spurs also completed a loan deal for the the Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa.

Tags: English Premier League, La Liga, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, transfer news