I don't understand?

Why would we buy some one when he could have been part of the Alonso deal. Any way i would rather Snijder (If that is how you spell his name)!
perhaps at the time of the Alonso deal Rafa's sights were on Silva therefore needed max. cash in order to get replacement for Alonso and then Silva. Now that we don't have 20 odd mil. to spend he had to return to Madrid for Van Der Vaart.
I think he wasn't used at all in Madrid so I don't really know that much about him to make an acurate judgement, maybe someone that has seen him often could let me know how good he is.