Cucurella: too little, too late for Chelsea this transfer window
FT Desk
- Updated: 23 May 2023 08:46 CDT
- 4 min read
Chelsea look set to beat Manchester City to Marc Cucurella's signature. While the Spanish left-back is a fine player, his £50 million arrival caps off a disappointing transfer window for the Blues.
Todd Boehly and Co. have backed Chelsea in the transfer market since succeeding Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge, and this summer has already seen them acquire Raheem Sterling from Manchester City for £47.5m and Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli for £33m/€40m.
But Chelsea finished 19 points off City's Premier League-setting pace last season, and Thomas Tuchel admitted recently that more surgery was needed if the Blues were going to compete for a title they last won in 2017.
"I am far from relaxed," he said after Chelsea were beaten 3-0 by London rivals Arsenal in pre-season. "We were simply not good enough. We were simply not competitive. I look at the last season and parts of the game where we struggled, parts of the season where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned and players left us and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is.
Marc Cucurella is close to Chelsea, and will receive a handsome pay raise as a result... https://t.co/VnyacV10th
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 2, 2022
"So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players [Sterling and Koulibaly] but we are not competitive like this. Unfortunately, you could see it today."
Chelsea's last major honour was the Champions League in May 2021 - 14 short months ago - but from the team that beat City 1-0 in the final in Porto, defenders Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christiansen have since left on free transfers for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, while Timo Werner has continued to disappoint in and could yet leave for Juventus this summer.
Romelu Lukaku was signed last summer for £97.5m/€117m summer to address Chelsea's shortcomings in attack. Eight Premier League goals later and he has returned to Inter Milan on loan. Chelsea needed attackers and centre-backs this summer and they tried to get them. They're biggest problem was that so did Barcelona.
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Trying to nick ahead of Barca to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich always looked ambitious, but Chelsea discussed, and indeed agreed, terms with Raphinha from Leeds and Jules Kounde from Sevilla, only to see both players move to Camp Nou instead.
Leicester reportedly want £20m more than what Chelsea are offering for Wesley Fofana - a player who broke his leg last August and was only seven games into his comeback before the season ended. With centre-backs options expiring, they are now prepared to pay £50m for Cucurella.
That might be the market for a someone who was Brighton's Player of the Year last season, in whom City have already been credited with an interest. But his primary position is at left-back, and Chelsea still have Ben Chilwell and Marcos Alonso on their books.
As good a player as Cucurella is, paying £50m for him to play in anything but his favourite position reeks of desperation. He will do a job - a good one even - to the left of Thiago Silva and on the opposite side to Koulibaly in Tuchel's preferred three-man backline, but how long he will be happy there remains to be seen.
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Sterling and Koulibaly may be playing in their preferred positions, meanwhile. But Sterling has contributed one single goal ion pre-season, and Koulibaly has made some social media-friendly tackles, but the fact he has needed to speaks to his positioning, and at 31, the suspicion remains that the best of his career is behind him.
Chelsea needed a top-level striker, and two elite centre-backs, to get back to where they were. So far they have a misfiring winger, one centre-back, and are about to spend big money to play a player out of position.
If Tuchel is far from relaxed, it is little wonder.
