Barcelona Full-Back Aleix Vidal Set to Remain at Barcelona Despite Premier League Interest
Full-back Aleix Vidal is set to remain at the Camp Nou, with Barcelona unwilling to grant the 28-year-old a January move away from the club, according to Cadena Cope journalist Helenda Condis Edo.
Vidal, who initially joined the Blaugrana from Sevilla in 2015 for a £25m fee, has failed to make an impact since his arrival at the Camp Nou - having started just 14 La Liga games for the league leaders. He has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, as well as Sevilla and Roma.
With recent reports claiming that Vidal's agent was in contact with a number of unnamed Premier League clubs, it looked certain that 28-year-old would depart Catalonia. However, it is now understood that he will remain with La Liga's table-toppers for the remainder of the season.
The former Sevilla man was apparently close to rejoining his former club earlier in the window. The 28-year-old grew frustrated at the lack of progress involving the move though, and subsequently turned his attention to the Premier League, with Estadio Deportivo reporting that his agent was in contact with clubs from both Manchester and Liverpool.
More recently, it looked like a move to Roma could be on the cards, with the Italian side viewing Vidal as a possible replacement for new Chelsea full back Emerson Palmieri.
Vidal's Italian intermediary seemed to somewhat quash those rumours, however: “It’s difficult to make predictions in football, Aleix Vidal is still a Barcelona player and Barça aren’t in a rush to sell their players,” Graziano Battistini told Tuttomercatoweb.
“Contact between the clubs? It’s difficult to distinguish between contact and a real negotiation. Monchi is certainly a fan of the lad, but he’ll probably be focused on other business I don’t know about. It’s a situation I don’t think will take off because right now the conditions aren’t there.”