Midfielder Arturo Vidal has shown brief flashes of what he’s capable of as an Inter player, but the feeling is that for most of his time at the club the Chilean has been past his best.

This according to today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, who compare the two seasons spent at the Nerazzurri by Vidal to the tenure of Radja Nainggolan at the club.

Both Vidal and Nainggolan were brought to Inter at the request of coaches who had worked with them in the past, with Luciano Spalletti signing Nainggolan from his old club Roma in the summer of 2018 and Antonio Conte bringing in Vidal in the summer of 2020 from Barcelona.

Nainggolan had proved to be one of Serie A’s outstanding midfielders across his four seasons with the Giallorossi, particularly taking a step up under Spalletti as coach, but at Inter his performances were inconsistent and he left on loan after just one season to join Cagliari.

Meanwhile, Vidal arrived at Inter with a reputation as one of the best midfielders of his generation, having shone for Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, and under Conte and then Max Allegri during four seasons with Juventus.

However, like Nainggolan, the sense was that the Chilean only rarely showed why he was so highly rated when he put on the Nerazzurri shirt, with the highlight of his time at the club perhaps being his performance and goal against his old club the Bianconeri in a 1-0 win on the way to the Scudetto.

Vidal arrived as a 33-year-old, and he will leave at the age of 35, hardly an age when midfielders with his style of play tend to be at their very best, and the feeling is that his time at the club has not lived up to his reputation from earlier points in his career.