Juan Cuadrado keeping options open between Chelsea and Juventus

When Juan Cuadrado joined Juventus on loan in the summer, we had assumed it would be his final act as a Chelsea player.  And for the first few months, it looked like a foregone conclusion that he would eventual make his move to the Champions of Italy a permanent one.  But January came and went, and, officially, Cuadrado remains on Chelsea's books.

Now, with Antonio Conte seemingly headed to Chelsea, the Italian media has quickly made a connection between the former Juventus manager and the current Juventus player, even though the two didn't actually cross paths at Juventus.  The story seems to be that Conte might be (more) willing to give Cuadrado a second chance given the winger's decently successful loan spell in Italy, I guess (i.e. Conte might put more stock into Serie A success than other Chelsea managerial candidates).  Or something.

In any case, Cuadrado was asked about the prospect of a Chelsea return, and gave a rather standard answer that rules out nothing and confirms nothing either.

"I'm very happy at Juventus and [not thinking about Chelsea]. My only thought is to finish the season as strongly as possible. As far as what I do in the future, we'll have to see what happens at the end of the season."

-Juan Cuadrado; source: Premier Sport via Gazzetta World

So there we go.  No real answer until the summer.

After a hot start but a somewhat indifferent late autumn, Cuadrado has come back into the fore for Max Allegri.  He even played the full 90 against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League knockout round match-up.  While I don't think any of that will warrant a return to Stamford Bridge for Johnny Squared, hopefully it will keep his price in a somewhat reasonable range so we don't have to eat too much of our misguided investment.