Ex-Tottenham Hotspur striker Peter Crouch claims Rafa Van der Vaart would have been a Tottenham legend if he’d stayed at the club longer.
It seems almost strange how quickly the Dutchman became a fan favourite after spending only two seasons at the club.
Spurs signed Rafa in the summer of 2010 in dramatic fashion, a very last minute deal from Real Madrid for the bargain price of only £8m (Telegraph).
Van der Vaart would go on to score 15 goals in his first season for Spurs, following up with 13 in his second year.
Unfortunately, Van der Vaart left as quickly as he arrived, moving to Hamburg FC for £10.3m (BBC) after just two full seasons in North London.
Crouchy played for Tottenham alongside Rafa for one of those years before leaving for Stoke City, and the two of them struck up quite the partnership.
The former England forward claims if the Dutchman had stayed for longer, he’d have become a club legend.
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He told the Daily Mail: “We only got to play together for one full season before I went to Stoke but, in that time, we created a lot of chances for each other, even more than when I played alongside Jermain Defoe, who was probably my most prolific partner.
“Tottenham really did have the makings of a special team then, with Luka Modric and Gareth Bale also getting up and running, and I know how much Harry Redknapp, our manager, used to simply enjoy watching what Rafa did on the ball. He’d have been a legend if he had stayed longer.”
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