On loan Juventus winger Juan Cuadrado. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chelsea and Juventus are currently in talks over a potential permanent transfer of Juan Cuadrado to Italy after the Colombian winger had successfully spent a championship season in the last term with the Turin giants.
The Colombia international was acquired by Chelsea in February 2015 after paying Italian Serie A squad Fiorentina a transfer fee of €30 million. However, Cuadrado have failed to impress in the 12 games he suited up for then manager Jose Mourinho even though the Blues ended up winning the English top flight title that season.
Cuadrado finished the 2014-2015 season without any goals in 14 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea. He played one game in 2015-2016 but was sent to Juventus on loan in August last year for €1.5 million.
He was able to play better under head coach Massimiliano Allegri although he is still not the main scorer of the club, with strikers Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic, and Symone Zaza taking care of those chores.
Cuadrado completed his first season with the Old Lady having scored four goals in 28 appearances and five goals in 40 games in all competitions.
SkySports noted that the 28-year-old forward wants to stay in Turin next season and Juve also wants him back as the Zebras again gave Chelsea a €1.5 million offer for another season-long loan for Cuadrado.
The bid also comes with an additional €22 million payment to make the transfer a permanent one in June 2017, as per Football Italia.
However, the Blues are allegedly not amenable to the deal as new head coach Antonio Conte is said to be keen on keeping Cuadrado as the former Italy manager is insistent that the Colombian is part of his plans at the Stamford Bridge next season.
Aside from that, the Blues are also said to be hesitant in letting him go for €8 million less than what they paid him for back in 2015.
In addition to Cuadrado, Juve is also reportedly interested in snagging Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic, which is a more difficult deal to push through for Allegri.
With Conte's favorite 3-5-2 formation expected to be utilized by the Blues this coming season, it would be hard to believe that the Italian mentor will let go of a midfielder with Matic's quality as he needs more men in the middle than the 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 configurations.
