The 5 worst signings in Chelsea's history

#5 Juan Cuadrado

Juan Cuadrado's time at Chelsea was brief and largely pointless

Colombian forward Juan Cuadrado was signed by Chelsea on the final day of 2015’s winter transfer window, and not only did the Blues pay Fiorentina somewhere around £23.3m for him, but they also sent Mohamed Salah the other way on a loan deal. To say that the fee didn’t represent money well spent would be an understatement.

It wasn’t that Cuadrado was bad per se during his time at Stamford Bridge; it was more that he was simply never given a proper opportunity to display his skills. He made his debut from the bench just days after signing and was awarded his first start just days after that, but despite boss Jose Mourinho responding to criticism of the player by stating that the Colombian simply needed time to settle in, evidently, the Portuguese didn’t feel he was worth the hassle.

Cuadrado made just 12 league appearances for the Blues that season, with 8 of them coming from the bench, totalling just 312 minutes of action. He failed to score a single goal or register a single assist, and when Chelsea signed Pedro from Barcelona the following summer, the writing was on the wall and the Colombian was quickly shunted away to Juventus on a loan deal, which was made permanent a season later for a fee of €20m, meaning the Blues likely made a loss on the player too.