Chelsea: Poor winter record raises Cuadrado concerns

Chelsea don't often get it right in the January transfer window

Chelsea should sign Juan Cuadrado on deadline day, but is it a great move or another mid-season misstep?

The biggest Premier League move anticipated on the winter 2015 deadline day is that of Fiorentina winger-come-wing-back Juan Cuadrado to Chelsea for a fee in the region of 23.3 million.

There is no disputing the Colombian's quality having been one of the best players in Serie A over the past 18 months and left a positive impression at World Cup 2014 as his nation reached the quarter-finals. At the age of 26, he may not yet have peaked either, so the price tag seems reasonable too.

However, even the most gifted player can struggle with the pressure that moving to a new country mid-season creates, particularly when joining a club fighting for both the Premier League title 1.330/100 and Champions League glory 9.89/1 and therefore requiring instant success.

Whereas Chelsea have made savvy winter additions in the past like Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill and, most recently, Nemanja Matic, their strike rate with attacking signings at this time of the year is far less assuring.

Twelve months ago, it was Mohamed Salah who they turned to after his impressive performances against them for FC Basel. Despite judging him worthy of an 11 million outlay, the Egyptian winger has started just six league games, with his worth falling so much that he is now being used as a makeweight in the Cuadrado deal, joining Fiorentina on loan.

In 2012/13, Demba Ba was the forward who they purchased seemingly on the basis of "got to buy somebody" but quickly made it apparent that they had no real plans for him. The 29-year-old was afforded 16 league starts in a year and a half and then passed on to Besiktas.

Kevin de Bruyne was recruited for 7 million in 2011/12. The Belgian spent the next 18 months on loan, only ever making three Premier League appearances, yet shone so brightly at Werder Bremen that Chelsea recorded a profit of around 10 million flogging him to Wolfsburg last January.

Of course everyone knows the story of 2010/11's 50 million capture Fernando Torres, so for the Spaniard's sake we won't go into those ugly details again, while the kindest description of Ricardo Quaresma's 2008/09 loan arrival is non-event.

This writer would argue that Chelsea's last triumphant mid-season attacking signing was Nicolas Anelka in 2007/08, though even that wasn't an immediate hit. The Frenchman scored one Premier League goal that term and missed the decisive penalty in the Champions League final, before recovering to be top scorer in the English top-flight ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008/09.

Cuadrado failing to impact upon his debut campaign would be a bigger issue than most of those predecessors because Chelsea are expected to ditch both Salah and Andre Schurrle (to Wolfsburg) to accommodate the newcomer, leaving Eden Hazard and Willian as the only other wide men left.