The best was not to sell him, if it's done something forced Marotta's hand.
But anyway, Vidal's current value is around 45M I'd say. 28 yr old, knee problems, behaviour problems, only 2 years left on the contract.
Probably the incident in Chile frightened buyers like Real, that's why there was no auction which would have driven the price up.
It looks low to other moves, but:
- Dybala - 32 +8 - we got ripped in the deal, 32+ 8 is crazily high in view he had only one year left on contract, but he's only 21, and there was an auction with Milan / Inter and we had to pay this to get the guy, as simple as that.
- Kondogbia - 30 + 5 - also only 21, and bidding war between Inter and Milan.
- David Luiz - PSG doing stupid / shady business with another oil club. The value is clearly not related to the player's quality. PSG also paid like 40M for Lucas when he played in Brazil, it was a joke already at the time. They are not reference for anything.
- Sterling - we're talking about fucking City looking for Brit talent. It's another world.
So if the total price is 40M (including bonus), it's a slight underpay from the correct 45M fee.
We also have to see how they may pay it, if it's upfront money it's normal to decrease the value.
So the fee is not that absurd to me, only a slight underpay (if confirmed). Maybe Marotta's hand was forced. What I want to know is if he had a solution lined up for this. Concluding the deal before getting the solution is a mistake.