Chelsea FC announced today that winger Juan Cuadrado has been officially loaned to Juventus for the remainder of the 2015-16 season. The Colombian has been long rumored to make the move with speculation increasing in the past week but both clubs made the official announcements on their Twitter accounts today.
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Juventus director Giuseppe Marotta revealed earlier this week that the deal was all but done and that the winger just had to fly out to Turin to complete his medical and sign the contract. We noted that we would wait until the deal was official to bid Cuadrado farewell and now we will.
Juan Cuadrado has today joined Juventus on loan until the end of the season... http://t.co/6ISQ09fuq0 pic.twitter.com/Bq18EuvIYL
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 25, 2015
Despite the move being a loan it is hard to envision a future in which Juan Cuadrado returns to Chelsea. The Blues spent £23m on him just eight months ago but even in limited opportunities he never impressed or looked the part. It would have been foolish to expect him to light up the world in 10 or 15 minutes of action but he never even looked the part in a Chelsea shirt.
In his 360 minutes of action for the Blues he notched a grand total of one assist and no goals. Numbers do not tell the whole story of course as he also continuously failed the “eye test”. He was timid when he came on to the field and seemed to be overawed by the league and the moment. Where was the player who helped Colombia shock the world at the World Cup in Brazil? He was nowhere to be found as he struggled to make any kind of impact for the Blues.
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This move to Juventus is mutually beneficial for all those involved and there are rumors that they have a £18.5m option to buy at the end of the season. Obviously that does not cover the entire transfer fee that the Blues paid for the winger but it is safe to say that they would be happy with that outcome. Juan Cuadrado has all the tools to succeed in Italy and he has done so before.
The best season of his career was with Fiorentina where he scored 15 goals in all competitions for the Viola. He could also join a likely small list of players who have won the Premier League and then gone on to win the Scudetto the following year as Juve are once again the favorites. This is a rare case of failing upwards or at least horizontally as the Colombian may well collect two league winners’ medals from two countries in two years without having contributed much at all.
He could still prove to be a key player for a team that lost some of its attacking verve this summer and we are certainly rooting for him. We wish him the best of luck at his new, albeit possibly temporary home, and we hope that you prove worthy of every pound of your possible future transfer fee.
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