Vidal Close To Striking A Deal With Bayern

BAYERN Munich are close to signing Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal but chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says a deal is not yet done.

After around 24 hours of negotiations, Vidal is close to making his move to a club he was on the verge of joining four years ago but Rummenigge has called for patience before the deal can be finalised.

“I’ve read about it and I’m not going to hide the fact that we are interested in him, but I read that it was all wrapped up and I cannot confirm that,” Rummenigge told reporters at Munich airport as Bayern flew out for a pre-season tour of China.

“As I’ve said, we’re interested, but we’re not yet so far that we’ve discussed details and signed contracts, so we need a bit of patience. I hope at the end of the day he will come.”

The prospective move has evoked memories of four years ago, when Rummenigge criticised the Chilean and said he would never want such a player in his club.

Vidal was reported to have reneged on an agreement with the Bavarians to join Juve when he left Bayer Leverkusen, but Rummenigge says new information has since come to light.

He explained: “We have a new technical director at our club called Michael Reschke and he was at Leverkusen at the time, and he has told me that Leverkusen absolutely wanted to prevent Vidal from ending up at Bayern.

“(Then-coach) Jupp Heynckes really wanted the player and we tried all we could to sign him, and the message we were given was that the player didn’t want to come to us, but that’s not true.

“It was Leverkusen who clearly turned down what was a better offer from us at the time purely because they didn’t want Vidal to continue playing in the Bundesliga.”

Now that issue has been resolved, Rummenigge would welcome Vidal to Munich with open arms.

“He’s got great quality and it’s no coincidence that Juve have won the title in each of the four years he has been with them,” he said.
“But like I’ve said, we’ve just got to wait and see. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”