However, club have doubts over Chilean's recovery from knee injury while former Manchester City enforcer De Jong is not likely to arrive as a back-up
The Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal is Manchester United’s top midfield target but the club’s concerns about his fitness are so great that it may require a complex, appearance-based contract if he is to follow Angel Di Maria into Louis van Gaal’s squad, taking the two-year transfer spend at Old Trafford crashing through the £200m barrier.
After a summer in which United have persistently felt that Juventus have been seeking to manufacture a market for the Chilean – with a £34m asking price they have always considered too high – the desperate need for midfield protection has led to a softening of their tone where the prospect of doing business with the Turin club is concerned.
But the player’s troublesome right knee is a cause of serious concern, with United acutely aware that the 27-year-old has not started a Serie A game for the Turin side since the 2-0 defeat at Napoli on 30 March – and that he was subsequently asked to play four times, late last season, before the knee was operated on. Juventus needed Vidal as they fought to win last season’s title and to progress in the Europa League.
The player underwent a rapid operation in May to repair his meniscus before the World Cup and was obviously never fully fit in Brazil, where he could not complete any of the three games he played. Universidad de Chile’s team doctor, Alejandro Orizola, described the operation that patched him up for the World Cup as “a hasty procedure” and claimed that “it would always bring with it a regression in his final recovery”.
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