Chelsea are hopeful of making their first big play of the transfer window and signing Fiorentina’s £27m-rated Juan Cuadrado this month as long as they can move on Mohamed Salah to make way for the Colombia World Cup star.
The 26-year-old midfielder Cuadrado is highly rated throughout the club’s hierarchy and is the overwhelming first choice when it comes to improving the squad in this window. Jose Mourinho has declared himself satisfied with his current squad in public, a sign that Chelsea are by no means assured of doing the deal and may have to go into the rest of the season with Salah in situ.
The other option is moving on Andre Schurrle who would fetch a much higher price than Salah, but the German is regarded as a more useful asset in the last five months of the season. He has fallen in and out of favour with Mourinho over the last two seasons but nonetheless has played a much more significant role than Salah.
Chelsea see the Cuadrado deal as the ideal way of adding fresh energy to a team that has at times looked a little jaded in games like the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur and then in the second half of Tuesday’s Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool.
Cuadrado is rated by Fiorentina at £27m and signed a new contract at the club until 2019 in October. He fits the template for a hard-working, pacey wide player who can take some of the workload off the likes of Willian and Eden Hazard as the games come thick and fast in the latter stages of the season. He has appeared in the Europa League for Fiorentina this season and is therefore available to play Champions League football for Chelsea.
The ideal scenario is that Chelsea move on Salah, who has been a major disappointment at the club since his arrival a year earlier – although that is contingent on the player being able to agree terms with one of the clubs interested in him. Chelsea have a range of interest in the player with Roma, Besiktas and Hull City all looking at him. Schurrle is wanted by Wolfsburg.
There were reports that the player was a guest of Chelsea at Anfield this week which the club say are not true. He started the Coppa Italia cup tie for Fiorentina against Atalanta this afternoon, a sign that the deal remains far from done as yet. There was interest in him from Manchester United over the summer but their priorities lie elsewhere.
