Spurs have had some very good overseas central midfielders in the Premier League years - Steffen Freund, Didier Zokora, Sandro, Mousa Dembele and Nayim to name but a few - but, even though he's more of an attacking midfielder or someone who plays in the hole behind the striker, given the formation this team is being forced to play by virtue of the other players chosen, Rafael van der Vaart definitely makes the cut (he can play at the front of a midfield diamond, for the sake of argument). A product of the famous Ajax Amsterdam youth academy, the Dutchman developed a great affinity with the Spurs fans in a relative short space of time and they even gave him his own chant - Na-na na-na na-na na-na na-na na, Rafa van der Vaart, van der Vaart, Rafa van der Vaart! Spurs signed him for just £8 million from Real Madrid in August 2010 and he made an instant impact at White Hart Lane scoring three goals in his first four Premier League matches and scoring one goal and assisting another in his first two Champions League matches for the club and was awarded Goal.coms World Player of the Week just two months in to his Spurs career, as well as Premier League Player of the Month. He scored twice against Spurs' biggest rivals Arsenal and, overall, van der Vaart played 63 times in the Premier League for Spurs and 77 times in total. He scored 28 goals for the club in those games highly impressive for an attacking midfielder.
