England World Cup warning as Premier League flops Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado want last laugh

Revival: Both Cuadrado and Falcao have resurrected their careers since leaving England
AFP/Getty Images
Simon Johnson29 June 2018

Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado didn’t make any impact during their club careers in England but they can have the last laugh by ending the nation’s World Cup dreams.

Football often gives players with an axe to grind an opportunity to make amends and one suspects the two Colombia players are already counting down the days till they face Gareth Southgate’s side in Moscow.

Given what they have achieved in the game, it is a mystery why these men failed so spectacularly in the Premier League.

Falcao spent two seasons on loan from Monaco in the top flight, first with Manchester United and then at Chelsea, between 2014-16.

Having suffered a serious knee ligament injury in January 2014, he came to these shores looking to resurrect his career. By the time he left, it looked more in jeopardy than ever.

He started a total of 19 games, of which only two were at Chelsea, scoring five goals.

For a man once regarded as one of the greatest strikers in the world, Falcao was a pale shadow of the forward he used to be.

But those dark days are a distant memory now as the 32-year-old has found the net 54 times for Monaco and Colombia since then.

England defender Gary Cahill was at Stamford Bridge during Falcao’s troubled time there and is fully aware that he poses a much tougher test.

Cahill told Standard Sport: “Falcao is a top striker, he has been very good in front of goal in recent years and is a player we have to watch out for.

“He clearly had frustrations in England, but it shows the strength of his character that he has rediscovered his form since leaving.

In Pictures | England vs Belgium, World Cup | 28/06/2018

1/50

“Obviously he has been banging in a lot of goals for Monaco and Colombia. No-one can doubt he is a high profile player.”

One suspects John Stones won’t need reminding. The Manchester City and England centre half certainly came off second best when facing Falaco in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2016-17.

The former Atletico Madrid star evaded Stones twice to score a brace at the Etihad Stadium, which proved crucial as Monaco ended up going through on away goals.

His renaissance helped Monaco beat wealthy Paris Saint Germain to the French championship that season, but compatriot Cuadrado has enjoyed even greater success after swapping Chelsea for Juventus.

The Blues paid Fiorentina £26.5m for his services at the start of 2015 when they were already on course to finish top of the League under Jose Mourinho.

It was bad enough that he went on to be named in the first XI a measly four times before moving on.

But he will have to be regarded as one of the most costly mistakes the west London club ever made in the Roman Abramovich era because they effectively started divorce proceedings with Mohamed Salah, now a star for Liverpool of course, by sending him on loan in the opposite direction to secure the deal.

Cuadrado, who can play right back or right wing, never settled in the capital and was loaned out to Juventus for the following two seasons before the switch was made permanent last summer.

Limited: Cuadrado made just four League starts for Chelsea
AFP/Getty Images

The 30-year-old hasn’t lived to regret it as he’s won three consecutive League and Cup doubles in Italy.

And Cahill conceded: “After leaving Chelsea on loan, Cuadrado has had a fantastic time there. He has played in some huge games for Juventus. He has blistering pace, is very tricky. He is definitely one of the threats.”

England have been warned.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in