Chelsea Will Regret Letting Juventus Sign Arturo Vidal
With Chelsea's myopic pursuit of Luka Modric still no closer to completion, they've missed a huge chance to sign the Chilean midfielder who is easily as good as the Croatian...
Just recently, Bayer Leverkusen Sporting Director Rudi Voller, proclaimed that the clubs most prized asset Arturo Vidal would not be sold to a club inside Germany – so between you and me, that meant Bayern Munich. More specifically it would have reunited him with his former Leverkusen boss, Jupp Heynckes, who swapped Bayer for Bayern during the summer break. Yet hot on the heels of the announcement of his signing for Juventus, we look at why Chelsea have missed a player who could improve any team in Europe…
Who is he?
Born in the Chilean capital of Santiago, Vidal’s big break came at his hometown club Colo Colo (the club that also produced another Bundesliga star – Lucas Barrios). Now far from being a goal machine like Barrios, Vidal played a vital midfield role in three titles for Colo Colo, which alongside his performances for Chile’s U-20s got him noticed by Voller.
In the summer of 2007, he signed for Leverkusen for just over £4.5million and he hasn’t looked back since joining the Werkself.
What position does he play in? Who does he play like?
Vidal has been the central figure for Leverkusen across the last three managers at the club (Michael Skibbe, Bruno Labbadia and Jupp Heynckes) and it is safe to say that he impressed them all. It is very difficult to pigeonhole Vidal as a certain type of player because his influence is so great for Leverkusen. This authority in the heart of the midfield of the Bundesliga runners up cannot be understated – to say he is hardworking doesn’t even begin to cover it. From doing his bit at the back and offering assistance to the defence, to ghosting his way up the field to do the same for the forward line, Vidal has developed into the kind of player a modern team can’t do without.
In his first three seasons at Leverkusen he picked up a staggering 30 yellow cards, so he could be looked at as a bit of a’Latino bad boy’ but thankfully times have changed
To achieve that, a player needs bags of energy, tenacity and a certain flare…and Vidal has them all. There is no surprise that his name had been linked with Chelsea, as those qualities can also be found in another Chelsea target – Luka Modric.
Strengths and Weaknesses?
On arrival in Germany Vidal had a cracking start, but he had a tendency to get himself into trouble. In his first three seasons at Leverkusen he picked up a staggering 30 yellow cards, so he could be looked at as a bit of a’Latino bad boy’ but thankfully times have changed. In the 2010-11 season he did get his discipline a little more under control with just four (two of which did see him sent off). This reduction in yellow cards hasn’t affected his willingness to get stuck in.
He has the qualities that any team wants from a midfield thoroughbred, like the ability to be calm in possession and be tough to shift off the ball. He also has vision, not just with a pass but to see an opportunity and take it – he is often in the right place at the right time to pick up the scraps from an attack and that often ends up in a goal for either him or a teammate. No wonder then he got 11 assists to his name in the league last season. Throw into the mix that he is a trusted penalty taker and Vidal looks more and more like a great jack-of-all-trades.
What’s his form like?
At the end of last season, Vidal was in many people’s Bundesliga team of the season, and could well have been the overall player of the year, had it not been for another midfield combatant, Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund) who of course has gone on to join Real Madrid. If that wasn’t enough, he also managed to score during Chile’s table topping group stage at the Copa America, so will be returning to Europe in good shape for the coming season.
