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Juan Cuadrado Is a Valuable Commodity, and Chelsea Should Cash in While They Can
- Updated: August 18, 2016
There isn’t a player who divides opinion at Chelsea quite like Juan Cuadrado.
On one side of the debate are those supporters enamoured by his exploits with Colombia and his time spent in Serie A with Fiorentina and on loan at Juventus last term. Then there are those still coming to terms with his disastrous first six months at Chelsea in 2014-15.
Cuadrado replaced Andre Schurrle that January, and his transfer completely tanked. So poor were the few appearances he made, the Colombian actually weakened Chelsea’s squad. And the Blues had paid the best part of £24 million for the privilege.
New boss Antonio Conte was asked about Cuadrado’s future in July, and he was emphatic in his assertion that he would remain a Chelsea player.
“He’s in our squad, I’m very happy to have him and train him,” Conte explained after taking charge of his first game against Rapid Vienna in pre-season. “I wanted him when I was a coach at Juventus, and he will come back very soon and train and play with us,” he added.
Part of that is true; Cuadrado’s been back training with Chelsea, but he featured sparingly in the remaining pre-season matches since the Rapid outing. When the season kicked off on Monday night, Cuadrado wasn’t even on the bench against West Ham United. Instead, we saw Victor Moses and Pedro as the back-up wingers to Eden Hazard and Willian.
It’s one game in isolation, but with Cuadrado’s Chelsea history, his exclusion hints at one thing: It doesn’t matter that he lusted after the Colombian in a previous life, Conte’s realised Chelsea have better and more reliable options ahead of him.
It’s an element of trust that is the big issue with Cuadrado here. He may well have produced the goods with Fiorentina and Juventus, but repeating that with Chelsea is a whole different issue. He’s known more for assisting opponents than he is team-mates, rarely producing anything positive in the few appearances he has made in Chelsea colours.
@garryhayes Would love to see him under Conte but no point in keeping a player who obviously wants to go back to Italy.
— Chelsea HQ (@Chelsea_HQ) August 18, 2016
@garryhayes Would like to see him at …
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