Inter Milan cross off signing Barcelona’s Arturo Vidal

Barcelona lose a potential suitor for wantaway player.

Barcelona find themselves down a club in their pursuit of offloading Chilean midfielder, Arturo Vidal.

According to Sport, Inter Milan have pulled out of the running, citing his age as the reason. Manager Antonio Conte wants Vidal but is facing some hesitancy from his own club.

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Inter had been after Vidal since the start of the season. Their interest didn’t cool and continued during the winter transfer window but Barcelona were not interested in selling.

For a while now, the Catalans have been wanting to include him in a deal involving Lautaro Martinez. Because Inter were heavily interested throughout the season, Barcelona were hoping that by including him, they could push a deal over the finish line.

However, Inter no longer consider him a priority nor are they interested him in being part of the Martinez negotiations.

Vidal is 33 and it is likely Inter believe he may not have the legs to succeed at a high level any longer contrary to what he might believe.

While a favorite under Ernesto Valverde, it remains to be seen how, and if, he’ll be used by Quique Setien.

Barca facing an aging midfield.

The reason the club would like to move on from Vidal is the same reason why Inter wont’ sign him: age.

The Catalans have an aging midfield of Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Vidal. As it stands, the only midfielders under 30 are Frenkie de Jong and Arthur Melo.

They need to revitalize the center of the pitch and to do that, they’re going to need to sell the likes of Vidal and Rakitic. With Inter pulling out, that’s one less answer to their problem.

With them needing to bring in new players and only being able to do so by selling, the club have put themselves in bind. The thing is, it’s a bind of their own doing. Selling older players is difficult and unfortunately for them, other clubs know they’re trying to move them on.