Van der Vaart believes Spurs can earn him a dream move to Manchester United

Tottenham fans are understandably jubilant over the high-profile coup but they have been warned not to read too much into Van der Vaart's choice of club.

A Real Madrid insider is claiming the 27-year-old only believes Spurs are his best option because playing for them is the best way to earn an onward move to Old Trafford.

Two of Spurs' most important players of recent seasons have made the move from north London to join up with Sir Alex Ferguson - namely England midfielder Michael Carrick and star striker Dimitar Berbatov - for a combined transfer fee of more than £45million.

Rumours also circulated in recent months that current stars Luka Modric and Gareth Bale could be tempted to quit Tottenham for the lure of the Theatre of Dreams.

However, after securing qualification for the Champions League, both players committed their immediate futures to their current club.

The claims, reported by some sections of the Spanish press this week, are supported by comments made by Van der Vaart in August when he said: "I could never play for another club in Spain.

"And if you are leaving Real Madrid there is only one club you can join that is not a step down - that's Manchester United." (http://nettoboy.blogspot.com/2010/08/van-der-vaart-wants-to-leave-real.html)

The source also claims Real bosses are furious with Harry Redknapp, after the Tottenham manager suggested he got the player for less than half price.

Redknapp said on Tuesday evening he was only able to move for Van der Vaart after an £18m bid from Bayern Munich fell through at the last minute and chairman Daniel Levy called to say he'd been offered the player for £8m.

However, Madrid's money men say this is not true - claiming Bayern never agreed a fee for the playmaker and their valuation of Van der Vaart was not compromised by his late move to north London.

Rumours of a desperation sale of a popular member of the squad has already caused some unrest among the Bernabeu faithful, with Real chiefs concerned the speculation could already be turning sections of the fanbase against their expensively-acquired new coach Jose Mourinho.