Marc Cucurella was signed for major money in the summer – it was a move that surprised a lot of people as Chelsea already had one very good senior left back in the form of Ben Chilwell, and a very good young left back in the form of Ian Maatsen. They also have Lewis Hall, more than capable as a third choice.
So spending huge money on a player starting elsewhere in the Premier League was odd at the time – and has only looked more odd since, as Cucurella has really struggled.
Former Chelsea Leboeuf has seen enough already, and his quotes as picked up by the Sun were pretty damning:
“[Chelsea fans] don’t want to see Cucurella anymore. With all due respect to a man that I don’t know, the player is not good enough for Chelsea. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s crazy that they signed him for £60m or £70m, but we can see that he doesn’t belong to this level.”
It’s very strong stuff, and we’re not going to be persuaded to write Cucurella off that easily. But Frank is right – it’s not been nearly good enough so far, and fans are desperate to see Chilwell back.
The worse Cucurella does, the more questions there are about why on earth Maatsen wasn’t considered good enough.
