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Van der Vaart questions Man City egos

By Zain Alvi | 1st November 2011

Manchester City’s table-topping form has impressed Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart but despite acknowledging that Roberto Mancini’s men are the favorites, the Dutchman believes that managing egos will be a challenge at the Eastlands.

Van der Vaart could not manage to enjoy a break-through during his time at Spanish giants Real Madrid and although the 28-year old has been terrific since moving to White Hart Lane, he believes that rediscovering peak form may not have been possible at the Santiago Bernabeu.

“I was at Real Madrid and that’s the problem when you have too many big stars. When you play for a top team and they buy a lot of good players, a lot of other players aren’t happy,” Van der Vaart told The Guardian.

Comparing the competition for places in the Spanish capital to the selection headache Mancini experiences at Etihad Stadium on a weekly basis, Van der Vaart added: “They (Manchester City) are winning games easily and how they played against Manchester United [in the 6-1 derby win] was impressive but they also have the difficulty of a lot of egos, so that could be a problem.”

On-loan Spurs striker Emmanuel Adebayor has played at both Real Madrid and City, with the latter club’s view of his services as surplus to requirements further validating Van der Vaart’s feelings.

“You look at Emmanuel Adebayor, a great player for us, but at City he was training with the youngsters. He is a great player and he was not even training with the first team,” Van der Vaart concluded with a questioning tone.

The Spurs will travel across the city to face Fulham on Sunday while City will travel to Loftus Road to face Queens Park Rangers, who controversially defeated Chelsea 1-0 in their last home fixture.