Inter Milan ready to make a move for Arturo Vidal

For the better part of the summer, Arturo Vidal has been linked with a return to Serie A as Inter Milan have been in pursuit of the midfielder for months now. Vidal has spent three seasons with Bayern Munich after making the move from Juventus in the summer of 2015, but Bayern’s increasingly packed midfield could ultimately prompt the Chilean to return to Italy.

Per Corriere dello Sport and Football Italia in Italy, Inter Milan’s sporting director, Piero Ausilio was spotted in Munich, presumably to negotiate a deal for Vidal with his Bayern representatives. It’s reported that Inter wanted to offer somewhere around €23m and €24m for the midfielder, but Bayern aren’t interested in entertaining any offers below €30m. In order to meet Bayern’s asking price, Inter would likely have to sell one or two players from their current squad, with Matias Vecino or Roberto Gagliardini on the top of that potential list; the two have been heavily linked with other clubs and would provide enough funds to cover the difference in the Vidal fee.

Earlier this week, Ausilio’s trip to Munich was reported on by Sport MediaSet, who said Vidal’s interest in leaving Bayern for Inter should help with the negotiations since Bayern are asking for at least €30m:

Bayern does not consider the Chilean off limits to a transfer, but their asking price of €30 million for a player who has only 12 months let on his contract is considered disproportionate. Initial skirmishes of negotiations destined to continue. Vidal’s approval, however, is there and is now longstanding. Inter and the Warrior have been very close for a year now.

What’s interesting, too, is the fact that Bayern’s sporting director, Hasan Salihamidzic had gone out of his way to affirm that the club plans on keeping a hold of Thiago Alcantara amidst rumors that the Spaniard would be moving back to Spain this summer, presumably to rejoin Barcelona. Bayern would’ve been asking for at least €70M for Thiago, but Salihamidzic made sure to squash rumors that Bayern would sell him (via Suddeutsche Zeitung):

Of course we are planning with him [Thiago]. It will be an interesting battle for places with nine midfielders.

He also commented, however, on the intense competition for places in Bayern’s midfield that will be present for the upcoming season, without specifically acknowledging or denying transfer rumors linked to any of them like he did for Thiago:

It’s the club’s duty to the coach to put together a squad for where no discontent is pre-programmed, and at the moment we have — more or less — nine central midfielders for probably only three positions. Nine!

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Thomas Müller, James Rodriguez, Arturo Vidal, Thiago Alcantara, Javi Martinez, Sebastian Rudy, Corentin Tolisso, Leon Goretzka, and Renato Sanches will all be battling for starting spots as [presumably] central mideifelders. Of those nine, Vidal is the oldest at 31 years of age, approaching the latter stages of his career, so it makes perfect sense that he’d want to return to Italy, where his career truly blossomed.

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