Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp concedes he had no idea they were negotiating for Real Madrid midfielder Rafael van der Vaart in August.

The Dutch ace has been revelation this season.

And Redknapp revealed to Absolute Radio: "I spoke to Daniel about loaning him, and we spoke about loaning the player, so he said 'Look, we can do a loan deal for Van Der Vaart'. So I said 'Yeah, great, if we can get him on loan it would be brilliant, we'll take him on loan'.

"Then he come back about an hour later, he said 'Look, I've got a present for you, a surprise'. I said 'Oh great', you know, I thought 'Oh here we go, maybe he's going to… that old Mondeo, its done 140,000 miles', I thought he was going to change it for me, its worth about £240. He said 'No, I've bought Van Der Vaart', so I said 'Oh, great', you know.

"Yeah, he's a good player. Yeah, he is a good player, very good footballer."

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