Latest reports suggest that Chelsea coach Antonio Conte, who is apparently an ardent admirer of the Colombian winger, has blocked his move to Juventus from Chelsea. The former Fiorentina wing-back spent a year on loan at Juventus following an unsuccessful six months at Stamford Bridge.
Juventus had intensified contacts with Chelsea in the last couple of weeks to ensure that Juan Cuadrado comes back to Turin for a second consecutive loan spell. Earlier there were doubts as to whether Juve want the Colombian or not after the successful signing of Marko Pjaca from Dinamo Zagreb.
Juventus were looking to end the transfer window on a high trying to secure PSG’s Blaise Matuidi and Chelsea’s Cuadrado. But the latter move seems to have been blocked.
Conte and Cuadrado
Reports from Sky Italia suggest that Antonio Conte has blocked the transfer, despite the player’s insistence on a move back to Italy where he had earned his name playing for Juve’s rivals Fiorentina – a team Juve defeated last weekend in their opening fixture in Serie A.
Juventus were looking to land the winger on a cheap €3.5 million deal after their massive spending over the summer. Conte has been an admirer of the player and wanted him in his Juventus team before Allegri took over. Cuadrado is the perfect player for his 3-5-2 formation.
However, Conte no longer seems to rely on his characteristic 3-5-2 formation, which he heavily relied on for the Italian national team at the Euros. However these are still early days to decide which formation the Italian tactician will be sticking to.
Needless to say, he is more flexible than he was two years ago and certainly will not hesitate to use the bench if he needs so. Cuadrado will mostly start in the Chelsea bench and will be a squad rotation player, provided Conte does rotate his squad. The ex-Bari manager was notorious, in his early days, of not rotating his squad and using his bench players.
Fatigue was one of the reasons why his Juventus side could never do well in the Champions League. Juventus crashed out to Bayern Munich and Galatasaray in the round of sixteen and the group stages respectively when he was in charge.
