Mauricio Isla has dismissed speculation linking him with a return to Juventus in January, insisting he is happy at QPR.
The Chile international had a tough start to life in England when he struggled on his Premier League debut in the 4-0 defeat at Spurs but has since gone on to show why Harry Redknapp was so keen to bring him in on loan for the season.
The 26-year-old put in a solid performance in Monday night’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa and has no desire to leave west London for a return to Italy.
He said: “Return to Juve in Jan? That was never going to happen. People talk but I’ve never spoken about it. I’ve not spoken to a single director at Juventus, and not even to the coach there, Massimiliano Allegri.”
Isla was initially played as a right wing back where he excelled for his country at the World Cup in Brazil and is still adapting to being asked to play in a flat back four – something he is more than happy to do.
He said: “I’m very happy here. I’m working as hard as I can to improve as much as I can, because the manager wants to play with four at the back, and it’s a while since I’ve played in that system.
“It’s a long time since I played in a four-man defence – it’s not something I did very often either at Juventus or Udinese – but you need to learn fast.
“English football is one of the best in the world and I’ll train hard at the right-back role because that’s what I’m here to do.
“It’s important for me to stay here a long while, because I need to get match fitness back after the injury I had.
“After playing so many games at Udinese, it was a bad of a sad situation at Juventus, where I didn’t play all that much, whereas I’m playing regularly here and I’m very happy about it.”
Isla admits having his fellow Chilean Eduardo Vargas playing ahead of him on the right of midfield was helpful against Villa as the pair have no problems communicating.
He said: “It’s a long time since I played with Vargas. In the national team I play on the flank with [Alexis] Sanchez, however I think we can work well together and we both speak Spanish.
“We’re having to learn English quickly – it’s a bit complicated when they speak to you but luckily we can speak Spanish on the right flank. They’re different; here it’s 4-4-2 with Chile 3-5-2.”
Isla is now looking forward to the derby match with rivals Chelsea where he is expecting a difficult afternoon.
He said: “Chelsea? It will be very difficult. They are much more difficult than Villa. They have a lot of champions.”
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