Fruit the man carried in blue van (9)
I believe the answer is:
spearhead
'van' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fruit the man carried in blue' is the wordplay.
'fruit' becomes 'pear' (pear is a kind of fruit).
'the man' becomes 'he' (he refers to a man).
'carried in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'blue' becomes 'sad' (similar in meaning).
'pear'+'he'='pearhe'
'pearhe' inserted inside 'sad' is 'SPEARHEAD'.
(Other definitions for spearhead that I've seen before include "those at the forefront" , "Lead (an attack or movement)" , "in the van" , "front" , "come first" .)