Chelsea
forward Juan Cuadrado is on the verge of joining Juventus on a season-long
loan.
Sky Sports reported earlier this week that Juventus were interested
in the 27-year-old as their third choice for a new attacking-midfield
player.
It is understood Cuadrado was of interest if they could not get hold of
Schalke's Julian Draxler or Borussia Dortmund's Henrikh Mkhitaryan – and
Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta admitted their difficulty in
finding an agreement for either player on Sunday.
And Marotta also revealed that the club were therefore close to bringing in
Cuadrado.
Marotta said: "We took the opportunity, it is all done and we hope it to be
official tomorrow. It will be a loan for the season.
"It was discussed and agreed with [manager] Massimo Allegri. We work on the
market in complete harmony with him.
"We have had difficult negotiations with Schalke for Draxler. We will see
the opportunity but, at the moment, there is veto from Schalke. It's a
difficult task, but we'll see by the end of the market."
Cuadrado has struggled to make an impact at Chelsea since joining the club
in a £26.1m deal in January this year.
The Colombia international has made just four Premier League starts and 15
appearances overall, failing to score in any competition.
Chelsea also secured the signing of Pedro from Barcelona this week, and he
thrived in the attacking-right position, scoring the first and setting up
the second in a 3-2 win at West Brom on his debut.
top