According to reports from The Express this morning, Juventus have set a £28million price-tag on in-demand midfielder Arturo Vidal.
The Chile international has emerged as one of the most complete centre-mids in world football since joining the Turin outfit in summer 2011, this season bagging seven goals and four assists in 28 Serie A appearances whilst averaging 3.1 tackles per match.
In that time, he’s helped the Old Lady claim four consecutive league titles and the Italian champions are now targeting a Champions League crown, facing Barcelona in the tournament’s final next Saturday.
The 28 year-old almost joined Manchester United last summer only for a knee injury to prevent a move and he appears to be on the Premier League agenda once again. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admitted his admiration of Vidal earlier this week – as revealed by This Is Futbol – whilst Liverpool were linked by The Metro last Wednesday.
And according to The Express, who cite Italian publication Tuttosport, Juventus are willing to let their 2013 Player of the Year leave for £28million this summer.
That could have implications on the race to sign Paul Pogba, a known target of Chelsea and Manchester United – as This Is Futbol revealed last week.
Vidal is the kind of midfielder Arsenal and Man Utd have needed for years. While £28m is a lot for a player who’s just turned 28, we paid about that for Fabregas and it is quite clear the extent to which he transformed our team. Well worth it, I hope it’s not true.