Chelsea have officially announced the signing of Marc Cucurella from Brighton. The left-back becomes their fourth summer signing, joining Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Gabriel Slonina.
The addition of Cucurella can plug in two holes for the blues with one player. This summer saw Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen departing Stamford Bridge for Spain. Marcos Alonso is also likely to leave. Thomas Tuchel needs to address his backline urgently, and it looks like he is taking some concrete steps to do that.
Cucurella can fill in at both left wingback and left centre back in a back three formation. He had a stellar season for Brighton under Graham Potter and never looked out of place in the Premier League.
Manchester City were also interested in signing Cucurella. The Cityzens recently sold Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal, and need a left-back to compete with Joao Cancelo. However, they did not want to pay the sum the Seagulls demanded for the Spaniard.
New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly sensed the opportunity and quickly secured his signature. Cucurella is now announced as a Blue. Chelsea paid £55 million with another £7 million in add-ons for his services. Youngster Levi Colwill will also head out on loan to the south coast as a part of the deal.
The Brief Twist In The Cucurella Saga
Fabrizio Romano gave the deal his trademark “here we go”. But in a surprising turn of events, Brighton posted on their Twitter handle that no such deal had been signed.
This led to a lot of backlash against the famous Italian journalist. But he was eventually proven right after the deal became official. When Chelsea introduced Cucurella, they made a tweet identical to the Brighton one, taking a subtle jab at them.
Cucurella’s six-year deal will keep him at Stamford Bridge till the end of 2028. Ben Chilwell will have competition from him for a spot on the team.
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