5 reasons why Barcelona signing Vidal made no sense

In a move which nobody foresaw, Barcelona shelled out about €20m for the signature of Chilean international Arturo Vidal from Bayern Munich after three trophy-laden seasons at the Allianz Arena in Germany.

Inter had been in pole position to sign Vidal, but developments in their pursuits of Luka Modric turned their attention, and Barcelona were able to swoop in and cash in on the tenacious midfielder.

The move was highly unexpected, as the 31-year-old's skillset goes in marked contrast with the level expected of Barcelona players, hence many expressed doubts over the suitability of Vidal's play to Barcelona's.

The Barca board led by Bartomeu has come under intense criticism for most of the ridiculous transfers which have been sanctioned under its watch, with the arrivals of Lucas Digne, Douglas, Andre Gomez, Jeremy Mathieu and Arda Turan all proving underwhelming, while Neymar's transfer involved so many disputes that the true value of the deal is not known to this day and was the primary reason for the removal of former president Sandro Rosell.

It's not all been doom and gloom under Bartomeu though, as there some of the players brought in this period have gone on to cement legendary status at Nou Camp such as Luis Suarez, Samuel Umtiti, Ivan Rakitic and Marc Andre Ter Stegen.

However, two months on from Vidal's purchase, it is looking increasingly likely that this is going to be another one of the disappointing transfers made under this current board.

Here are five reasons why the signing of Arturo Vidal made no sense:

#5 His style of play contradicts that of Barcelona

Barcelona has achieved fame for the legendary midfielders the club has produced over the years, and much more importantly, each of these midfielders had a certain style of play which had been ingrained in them from their La Masia days.

This style saw possession, passing and exploitation of the ball in space take precedence over any other thing, and players who couldn't adapt to the high pressing demands of the tiki-taka style failed to cut the grade.

Players such as Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Alcantara, Busquets to name a few are progenitors of this school, and they all went on to achieve greatness in midfield for Barcelona and elsewhere.

Arturo Vidal is the complete opposite of a quintessential Barca midfielder: aggressive, not caring about finesse or aesthetics but playing with a bulldog pragmatic mentality where winning is all that matters even if it means getting dirty.

Vidal is the direct antithesis to everything Barcelona players symbolize on the field of play, and just like Paulinho before him, his signing is one that made no sense.

#4 The departure of Paulinho

Paulinho is on loan to Guangzhou Evergrande

Another player whose arrival was surprising owing to the difference in his style of play and that obtainable at Barcelona.

After showing much promise in Brazil with the national team and his club Corinthians, Paulinho made the move to Tottenham in 2013 where he generally struggled to live up to expectations before going on to China after just two seasons at White Hart Lane.

In the Chinese Super League, he rediscovered a bit of form, but it was still very surprising to see Barcelona shell out €40 m to purchase him, and after much scepticism over the transfer, Paulinho was able to redeem himself with some solid displays, scoring 9 goals in 49 matches to help the Blaugrana to a domestic double.

Despite receiving praise, Paulinho failed to fully win the critics over with his performance, and his current loan spell back to China after just a season shows that his display at Barcelona was plain and effective rather than exceptional.

Arturo Vidal's signing from Bayern came less than a month after the departure of Paulinho, and it begs the question as to why Barcelona spent such an amount of money to get a player with a similar skillset and playing pattern and who is also a year older than the Brazilian.

#3 He is now an injury prone player

Vidal's rough tackling, tenacious and no-holds-barred style of play means that he never shies away from getting into a tackle, and this has had a resultant effect on his body.

The 31-year-old has become an increasingly injury-prone player and missed a total of 123 days (over four months) of action last season for Bayern.

Barcelona is a club of the highest level, possessing world class players and an illustrious history which suggests that they play to win every tournament they participate in.

The average season for Barcelona entails at least 55-60 matches of the highest quality, and the club needs all its players to remain as fit as possible for the assault on the club's goals towards the end of the season.

So injuries are a liability that a club like Barcelona can ill-afford to have (even though they are part and parcel of the game), so the conscious decision to go all out for a player who has shown to be injury prone in recent years is one which boggles the imagination.

#2 His age counts against him

The midfield is the engine house of any football team, as players in this position are usually charged with doing the most work on the field by linking defence with attack and generally covering the most distance on the field.

Hence, for this reason, mobile, agile and young players are generally preferred in positions of midfield balanced with a touch of experience, more so at Barcelona where their possession-based style of playing requires great emphasis placed on their midfield.

The departures of club legend Xavi and gradual decline of Iniesta put the Barcelona midfield in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, and the club gradually lost its creativity, with the effect being that Barca's chief goal threat in Lionel Messi had to increasingly drop deep in a bid to influence proceedings.

The club faces something of a midfield crisis, as their main midfielders Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets (other than Arthur who is just establishing himself) are all on the wrong side of thirty.

It, therefore, made no sense adding a 31-year-old Arturo Vidal who had at most just a few years of elite football left in him, and to make matters worse, he was offered a three-year contract.

#1 He brought a lot of baggage

Vidal does not have the cleanest of images

Vidal's short-fused nature on the field of play also translates into his personal life, and his signing would do little to aid Barcelona in trying to build back its core values and image of being 'more than just a club' (which it has lost with some morally questionable decisions over the years).

Vidal comes with a lot of previous baggage, including multiple fines and suspensions for turning up drunk for both Chile and Juventus during team training, getting arrested for confronting the Police as a U-20 player, initiating and participating in a bar fight, to name a few.

Only two weeks ago, the Chilean appeared in a Munich court over charges of a nightclub battering and assault and was subsequently fined the sum of €800,000.

Barcelona have long earned a reputation of having players who shun the limelight, preferring to do all their talking on the pitch, which led Ibrahimovic to condescendingly label them schoolboys who lined up every morning for assembly.

Arturo Vidal in his short stay at the club has already garnered controversy and faced a backlash from the board for his use of social media and statements to the press with coach Ernesto Valverde even going ahead to say there were some 'issues' with the Chilean although he failed to expatiate on his comments.

Barcelona signed Vidal knowing his history of courting off-field negative attention, and it is hard to imagine the relationship between club and player going south sometime soon.

Edited by Debjyoti Samanta