Chelsea After Van Der Vaart, But Do They Really Need Him?
Walter Townsend takes a look at Chelsea's recent interest in Rafael van der Vaart, and examines whether or not the Blues are onto a winner...
A report in today's Daily Telegraph suggests that Chelsea are weighing up a move for Hamburg's Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, who has been enjoying an excellent season in the German Bundesliga.
Chelsea have been looking for additions to their team as they look to get the best out of Andrei Shevchenko: seemingly they have realised that, through various injuries and African Cup commitments, Didier Drogba is unlikely to see much action for them in the next couple of months.
This means that unless Chelsea concentrate on finding another striker of sufficient quality to represent a better option than what they already have, but one who is happy to take a back-seat when Drogba returns, they have to look to providing service to Shevchenko.
It is no secret that the club have been disappointed with the return from their expensively acquired striker, although publicly they continue to support the former AC Milan and Dynamo Kiev forward.
However, since Avram Grant's appointment there has been a change of attitude: there are hints that the Blues have acknowledged that the club are partially to blame for not providing the correct balls to Andrei.
With this policy in mind the club have now started looking for a player with similar capabilities to Kaka - who is, needless to say, out of bounds. After all, the Brazilian set up so many goals for his former colleague when they played together at AC Milan, so a carbon-copy player would surely help.
Having discounted Frank Lampard as an option to get the service through to Shevchenko, Chelsea are believed to have selected Rafael van der Vaart, the current Hamburg midfielder ,as the most suitable player to replicate Kaka's passes.
Van der Vaart has had an excellent season with the North German club, whose 3rd place status has largely been inspired by the talented Dutchman. As a goalscorer himself he's looking good - he has 9 goals in 14 games in the League, as well as several in the UEFA Cup, for which Hamburg qualified from as group winners on Thursday evening.
It is no secret that van der Vaart is looking for a move away from Hamburg and has openly expressed his desire to play in one of the "big leagues", by which he meant Spain, Italy or England.
Still, things started well for him at HSV. The playmaker has been with Hamburg for three seasons since arriving from Ajax for a mere 5 million Euros, after being the subject of a lot of abuse from fans in the country for his intermittent performances in the national colours and Ajax's difficulty in finding a place for him with Wesley Sneijder in a crowded midfield.
Hamburg has served as a release for the player, away from the weight of expectation in Holland, and he has flourished in the less technical environs of the Bundesliga, his form catching the eye of several major European clubs in the process.
In fact he was close to a move to Valencia in the summer, going so far as to pose in a Valencia shirt, but his club later blocked the move. Initially it seemed as if the Hamburg fans would turn on their star player, something they have a reputation for - just ask Boubacar Sanogo - but van der Vaart's brilliant performances have turned the side into one of the leading contenders this season and he was quickly forgiven.
However, the transfer rumours won't go away, especially after he was seen talking animatedly into long into the night with his agent, Soren Lerby. Lerby is a former PSV player and a close friend of Chelsea technical manager Frank Arnesen.
More weight was lent to transfer speculation last night when Gunter Netzer, a former German national player-turned TV pundit told ZDF TV channel, "HSV will not be able to keep hold of van der Vaart."
His team-mates also see his departure as an inevitability, handing him a shirt with "van der Verrat" (a pun on his name; Verrat means treason in German) ironically printed on the back as his Christmas present at the club's recent Christmas-do.
It looks like van der Vaart is leaving: the question is, where to?
Chelsea aren't the only team to express an interest in the player; Juventus have also made a 17 million Euro bid for Rafa and have a contract worth around 5 million Euros to the player ready for him to sign. Hamburg haven't given up: they've also readied a new deal, lasting until 2012, that would make him the best-paid player in the history of the club.
But the Blues are at the head of the queue, according to some estimates. The question is: Do Chelsea need van der Vaart?
Avram Grant is thought to long term want to change Chelsea's formation into a 4-3-3 looking to replicate the style of Barcelona and see van der Vaart as the ideal player to perform the Messi role from the right hand side. The only problem with that is that it doesn't fit into the plan of getting in a player to perform the Kaka role to Shevchenko, who played as a withdrawn forward in AC Milan's 4-4-2 formation.
We've already touched on van der Vaart's problems playing for 'Oranje', where he has been used mainly as the right sided forward in a 4-3-3 formation by Marco van der Basten. However, his performances have been poor and in truth he has seldom replicated his club form for his country. (Perhaps van Basten's recent announcement of a New Year tactical change was made with this in mind.)
He is usually seen as the ideal No. 10, playing behind either one or two strikers, depending on how adventurous the manger is feeling. His performances on the right side of the attack showed that largely he has been anonymous: sadly, this seems to be the exact position Chelsea have in mind for the midfielder in the long term.
Van der Vaart simply isn't suitable for being used as the right side of a front three forward as he lacks the explosive pace of a player like Messi or Robinho, which is so important in getting away from generally quicker full-backs. Furthermore, the position doesn't suit his best strengths, which are passing, vision, and making direct runs from deep positions - such abilities are best showcased from the middle.
Therefore being used by Juventus as the replacement for the ageing del Piero, the archetypal Number 10, may be more appealing to van der Vaart, rather than being seen as some sort of Robinho or Messi clone. He is many things, but he is not one of them.
Goal.com
Fuck Chelsea.But the last para gave me hope.
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