Chelsea Football Club are considering a bid for Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado as they want to add enough quality to their squad in order to make sure that they will not fall short of silverware, unlike last season.
According to reports, the Blues could match the fee of a 35m that happens to be Cuadrado’s release clause. The Colombian international is contracted with Fiorentina until 2019 after recently signing a contract, but his side will be helpless in front of Chelsea’s spending power if they decide to buy him.
Cuadrado, who signed a contract extension in late October, was being linked with a move to Manchester United and Barcelona in the summer transfer window, but a move failed to materialize. More recently, with United’s high net spending and Barcelona’s transfer ban, Chelsea have fewer competitors in signing the 26-year old. If Mohamed Salah makes his loan switch to AS Roma, then it’s almost certain that Chelsea will look for a replacement.
Mourinho is interested in #Cuadrado. Now he’ll choose if try with Fiorentina now or on summer. Talks started. 35Ma release clause #CFC
a Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 20, 2015
Cuadrado has been in good form, but he hasn’t been as influential as last season when he scored 11 goals and assisted eight times in the 32 league appearances. This season, he has scored just four goals in 16 league appearances. He had a brilliant World Cup before the Serie A and was being linked with top European sides. He can play either as a wing back or a winger. One of his key attributes is his work rate, something that Jose Mourinho always likes his players to have.
Mourinho clearly said that any departures from the club will be replaced, as a result, the speculation of Cuadrado joining Chelsea has grown stronger after Roma’s interest in Salah. Mourinho revealed, “I will be happy if nobody leaves or comes this month but the market is open and you never know. I do not want to lie to you.
“For Salah to leave, someone has to come, and I don’t think we are going to let Salah go on loan and then spend some money to bring somebody else in.
“So I don’t think so, unless my club comes to me and says Salah goes on loan and we are going to buy a 50 million-pound player.”
Considering the plethora of talent that Mourinho has at his disposal, it’s unlikely that he’ll sign someone as expensive as Cuadrado. That being said the January transfer window has always produced some surprise buys, so it would be somewhat premature to rule out potential transfer dealings involving big money.