The only smartass here is you. Firstly, Van der Vaart is not really a playmaker or a central midfielder. Try to catch a few games of Hamburg.

He is more of a supporting striker and thus not in charge of dictating the gameplay, which Ranieri obviouly wants, and which Giovinco could provide even better. Van der Vaart could provide something like Del Piero but since Del Piero is not retiring, I guess Ranieri is not desperate.
2nd) Sissoko is not preferred over Van der Vaart. Buying Sissoko won´t close the door for poetential VdV signing. Also VDV is almost impossible to sign in January, if that was what you were implying.
Try to think before speaking next time, son.

And people, our board is not going to buy players you want, so I don´t understand what is all the fuss about.
Dominic warned you about this "Van der Vaart refusal" several weeks ago, so you might want to listen to him next time.
Van der Vaart wouldn´t be our saviour either, even though he is really good player. I would like to se him here, but Ranieri has his plans and he is a coach for a number of years, so he might know a few things better than us. Insulting our board like little kids gone berserk won´t really help the cause.