🇨🇴 Juan Cuadrado

[Pizy 18,914]

Which is not necessarily a bad thing in the bigger scheme of things...

Agreed.

If we can move Salah and bring in Cuadrado then we'll have done some fantastic business but I'm not sure I want to see Schürrle leave.

[ChelseaFanUK 1,014]

Everything re.Salah and Roma is exactly same sort of stuff flying around about Torres and Milan. The press conference was quite similar too when asked about both players

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Obviously Mou wont say salah and schurrle could be out...as he wont say anyone is coming in.

And Cuadrado wont say he is going to chelsea.

Until everythig is agreed no one will confirm anything. If deal falls off, they would lool like idiots then.

[Jase 43,479]

Remember when he said he wanted Torres to stay and that he doesn't expect him to leave at all.... a few hours later he went to Milan. He acted the same when we were about to sell Kdb, Luiz and Mata.

TBF, he may have wanted them to stay but when you get offers like 50m, 38m etc, then you gotta think again especially when those offers are more than their actual worth.

Agreed.

If we can move Salah and bring in Cuadrado then we'll have done some fantastic business but I'm not sure I want to see Schürrle leave.

If we are going to sell Schurrle, I think it's best to do so in the summer. He's out of form at the moment but we have seen what he can do for us last season and only a few months ago, before he suffered the mystery illness, we were praising him for his off the ball movement (which is no else but Costa and probably Oscar have that) and as an option to play on the break. Of course this is no guarantee, but those qualities along with his pace and clinical finishing could be useful (even Mourinho himself has mentioned that a few times) when playing in Europe especially and help us go far in the competition.

On the other hand, I'm kinda questioning the logic of signing Cuadrado/Costa here. Are we only buying one of them because we are selling Schurrle/Salah or are we replace Schurrle/Salah to actually improve our RW? Right now, the impression seems to be the former and if that's the case, then it's basically only a stop-gap signing, which is bad business. If Mourinho is going to use Cuadrado effectively and equally with Willian, then fine. If not, then we'll practically have a 27 million squad player sitting on the bench every time (or 30m if suddenly Willian gets thrown out of the starting XI). Would rather wait till the summer when more options are available and we go from there.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Jose doing what any smart, good manager would do. They are his players till they aren't his players. If a deal gets scuppered we are stuck with players the manager wrote off in the media, not ideal. Jose taking it one step at a time.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

On the other hand, I'm kinda questioning the logic of signing Cuadrado/Costa here. Are we only buying one of them because we are selling Schurrle/Salah or are we replace Schurrle/Salah to actually improve our RW? Right now, the impression seems to be the former and if that's the case, then it's basically only a stop-gap signing, which is bad business. If Mourinho is going to use Cuadrado effectively and equally with Willian, then fine. If not, then we'll practically have a 27 million squad player sitting on the bench every time (or 30m if suddenly Willian gets thrown out of the starting XI). Would rather wait till the summer when more options are available and we go from there.

I'm not so sure I agree with this portion. Andre hasn't proven he is consistent enough to play for Chelsea, either this year or last year. We are going into the most important stretch of games of the season and we only have a slightly less inconsistent willian to depend on. Everybody knows we will reach a stretch of games were squad rotation is paramount and currently we don't really have someone we can trust on the right or left for that matter.

Also, keep in mind that if we wait until the summer the market for our assets goes down as well. Who is really gonna pay top dollar for two players who barely played in the summer?

To compete with the best you need exceptional squad depth. Look no further than real and Bayern for examples of that.

[Hutcho 8,443]

On the one hand if its like 25 mil then its not terrible but seems a waste for someone who i am not sure is that big of an upgrade over Willian, and i would assume means Schurrle is leaving.

On the other hand, Dat Pace on FIFA tho...

[Jase 43,479]

Chelsea Legend 11, on 23 Jan 2015 - 10:18 PM, said:

I'm not so sure I agree with this portion. Andre hasn't proven he is consistent enough to play for Chelsea, either this year or last year. We are going into the most important stretch of games of the season and we only have a slightly less inconsistent willian to depend on. Everybody knows we will reach a stretch of games were squad rotation is paramount and currently we don't really have someone we can trust on the right or left for that matter.

Never said anything about Schurrle being a first choice all of a sudden, but a useful option to have at least until the summer. You never know when we need his qualities, especially in European matches, where we tend to play a little bit more on the break.

Even if we do get Cuadrado in this window, there's no guarantee he'll be instant hit and fit in seamlessly. He could take time to adapt and if that proves to be the case, then we're pretty back to square one again.

Chelsea Legend 11, on 23 Jan 2015 - 10:18 PM, said:

Also, keep in mind that if we wait until the summer the market for our assets goes down as well. Who is really gonna pay top dollar for two players who barely played in the summer?

Schurrle is highly rated in Germany and clubs would offer a good amount of money for him. The situation would hardly regardless of how many many minutes he gets between now and the end of the season. And you're assuming that he (and Salah) won't play a lot even though Mourinho has showed almost the opposite previously.

Chelsea Legend 11, on 23 Jan 2015 - 10:18 PM, said:

To compete with the best you need exceptional squad depth. Look no further than real and Bayern for examples of that.

Those 2 clubs are in a different world when it comes to squad depth but on the other hand, it's impossible to have that kind of squad and expect players to be happy. Khedira and Illaramendi are looking to leave Real Madrid and not to mention, Shaqiri just left Bayern. Not team is perfect with the squad depth.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Never said anything about Schurrle being a first choice all of a sudden, but a useful option to have at least until the summer. You never know when we need his qualities, especially in European matches, where we tend to play a little bit more on the break.

Even if we do get Cuadrado in this window, there's no guarantee he'll be instant hit and fit in seamlessly. He could take time to adapt and if that proves to be the case, then we're pretty back to square one again.

Schurrle is highly rated in Germany and clubs would offer a good amount of money for him. The situation would hardly regardless of how many many minutes he gets between now and the end of the season. And you're assuming that he (and Salah) won't play a lot even though Mourinho has showed almost the opposite previously.

Those 2 clubs are in a different world when it comes to squad depth but on the other hand, it's impossible to have that kind of squad and expect players to be happy. Khedira and Illaramendi are looking to leave Real Madrid and not to mention, Shaqiri just left Bayern. Not team is perfect with the squad depth.

I never said anything about him being first choice either, it's clear it's willian. What I did say is schurrle hasn't really been all that effective when he's been in the team. We've already had a need for him and he's failed to deliver on numerous occasions. I like him as a person but he's been relatively poor as a player.

We have no way of knowing whether or not cuadrado will be the answer, what we do know is schurrle and salah have made the club think we need to fill a void on the right flank. Reus could come and we'd still have no way of knowing whether or not he will fit in. The stance you seem to be taking is 'we know what we have in these two and regardless of whether or not they are working, they are known quantities.' I don't subscribe to that, we are trying to improve and with that there is always risk.

What I'm saying is when you deal from a position of strength you stand to get more in return. If we wait till the summer out bargaining power weakens because teams have more players to choose from. The market is in our favour as a seller now.

Bottom line is the best teams in the world have high quality subs on their bench, that is what we are aspiring to.

[iseah100 5,612]

So in a matter of days we've gone from Messi to Reus to Cuadrado to Costa and finally to Valencia? What next, we decide against buying anyone and recall the mighty Marko Marin?

Enner Valencia is better than Douglas Costa.

I don't want to sell Andre, I'd rather keep what we have until the end of the season if we have to settle for Costa. Turan, Alexis, Griezman, Reus, Vela or someone else may be available, Douglas Costa is not the solution.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

We will sign him. The question now is that will there anyone out? and who will that be?

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

lol.

wtf...

[Special Juan 28,141]

wtf...

Don't read a lot into it or anything Jose says.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

wtf...

Jose can't say anything but that otherwise it's considered tapping up. Not to mention if the deal falls through and Jose had gone on about Cuadrado's virtues it wouldn't be so good for the morale of William Schurrle and Salah

[Jase 43,479]

We have no way of knowing whether or not cuadrado will be the answer, what we do know is schurrle and salah have made the club think we need to fill a void on the right flank. Reus could come and we'd still have no way of knowing whether or not he will fit in. The stance you seem to be taking is 'we know what we have in these two and regardless of whether or not they are working, they are known quantities.' I don't subscribe to that, we are trying to improve and with that there is always risk.

Funny that. Mourinho may have been thinking about upgrading our RW but in this window and situation, the impression seems to be that we are only buying Cuadrado to replace Schurrle/Salah as opposed to replace either one of them with Cuadrado to strengthen our RW. After all, there were no signs of us doing anything until suddenly Wolfsburg and Roma expressed their interest in Schurrle and Salah respectively. We are trying to improve yes, but is Cuadrado really the answer? Is he really THAT good and better than Salah, Schurrle or Willian? Not convinced. May end up being a 27m bench warmer.

What I'm saying is when you deal from a position of strength you stand to get more in return. If we wait till the summer out bargaining power weakens because teams have more players to choose from. The market is in our favour as a seller now.

Considering how highly rated Schurrle is in Germany, I don't see our bargain would weaken a lot, even if there'll be more options for clubs to choose. He's one of the better players around and if teams like Wolfsburg, Dortmund etc want to get even better, then Schurrle would be pretty high on that list.

Bottom line is the best teams in the world have high quality subs on their bench, that is what we are aspiring to.

We may aspire to be one of the best teams around but the idea of having world class players in the starting XI and on the bench is totally nonsense. We live in reality, not in the world of Football Manager or FIFA. It's nearly impossible to be having that. Barcelona under Guardiola did not have high quality players on the bench but what they did have was good and reliable players to come in and do the job. It was the same thing with Ferguson's United as well.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Look like the transfer is reaching its ending in the end as Jose said, no one is going anywhere haha

[Jase 43,479]

Look like the transfer is reaching its ending in the end as Jose said, no one is going anywhere haha

Imagine the furore here...

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Imagine the furore here...

Meh would have been a good signing as I think he is a good player, but doesn't matter if we wait until the summer and go for the likes of Reus...etc or him again, getting 5 more months to pass judgement. Doubt many are that desperate either, some are talking as if he is from Urganda and never played football before . What I hope though is that we don't go for Costa for 20m+, that would be madness.

[The Mak 4,459]

EDIT: @The Mak

1. Actually fair market value

2. We do not know anything about that. Some players take to the league right away, others don't. In other words speculation.

3. Opinion and speculation, that kind of analysis should be left for the people who make a living out of it. Stats point towards him being enough of an improvement though.

4. What is the resell value of Fabregas or Costa? We can not only buy players with selling them in mind. The idea is for them to play well, improve the team and then leave when they have reached a point where they cant earn their keep. Unless they fail right away the time of that usually occurs with higher age.

5. Opinion

Not trying to sound like an ass, but those aren't exactly striking arguments. A forum thrives when people come in with opinions based on at least some sort of facts rather than just saying "he sucks", "no THX" etc.

Thinking that Cuadrado is the wrong player is fair enough, but its hard to know what you in this instance is basing this opinion on.

1. Not if he is shit it's not.

2.. How did Salah adapt since last January then? You can't deny that the time for adaption makes this transfer the potential to be yet another waste of everyone's time.

3. As a statistician, i'll tell you that stats like that don't point to shit unless they are under the same conditions. Kezman had fantastic stats in Eredivisie didn't he?!

4. This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have read on this forum; you are comparing Fabregas & Costa to Juan Cuadrado? Lets compare then shall we?

Fabregas: a proven WC player with multiple honours and PL proven.

Costa: scored 36 goals in 52 appearances last season and was the driving force behind Atletico winning their first league title in 19 years and reaching their first CL final.

Vs.

Juan Cuadrado: a 26 year old who was completely anonymous to the majority of the footballing world until he was seen at the WC, in a team that was carried by James Rodriguez no less.

In case you didn't notice, what I was getting at was that we are expected to pay a price that is indicative of a guaranteed success when Cuadrado is far from. At least with Salah and Schurrle they were cheaper, young, and would've kept a lot of their resale value (which they have obviously); but with Cuadrado, if he flops we will not be able to sell him for anywhere near the price we paid. Not only could it be a big fat waste of time, but also money; these are the things that must be thought about with FFP and a title on the line.

Point is, if we are paying that money for a player these days we should have a 90% confidence in his ability to adapt and succeed, if not, he should at least still have the age and potential to improve elsewhere if he does not succeed so we can get our money back or make a bit of a profit - Cuadrado currently falls into neither category.

Besides, if (God forbid) something happens to Hazard I would much prefer to have Schurrle here than sticking square pegs in round holes by putting Willian on the left or a new player who is not only uncomfortable in the position, but is also adapting to a new team, new style, new league, new life etc. Something like that has the potential to seriously disrupt a title challenge...

[Spike 12,049]

So according to WhoScored Cuadrado's defensive contribution is weak and he is dispossessed a lot. So he may have impressive overall workrate but contributes little to defence. They also state he is stong at passing, finishing and key passes. So his offensive output is quite solid. I'm liking this transfer a little more now, Cuadrado as an Offensive Winger and Willian as a Defensive Winger. That will cover the right hand side nicely. But it also must be noted that Cuadrado has scored all of his goals this season from the Centre Attacking Midfield position.

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/44868/

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/29463/