Marc Cucurella will be available for Chelsea’s Premier League opener at Everton after the Blues completed his £60million signing from Brighton.
The 24-year-old defender has signed a six-year contract at Chelsea, with Brighton negotiating a club-record sale in the process.
Spaniard Cucurella adds further quality and depth to Chelsea’s options at wing-back as he follows previous summer recruits Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Carney Chukwuemeka into Stamford Bridge.
Levi Colwill has also made his season-long loan switch to Brighton in a deal separate from Cucurella’s Chelsea transfer, but that had to be completed for both transfers to be sealed.
Chelsea have stumped up a major fee for Cucurella where Manchester City baulked at the asking price earlier in the summer, with manager Thomas Tuchel delighted by the new addition.
Tuchel also revealed Cucurella’s arrival will help ease the pressure on England wing-back Ben Chilwell, who will need time to hit top form on the long recovery after knee surgery.
“He’s young, hungry, mobile and a very intelligent player,” said Tuchel of Cucurella.
“It helps in depth and in quality, and it helps with Ben, to escape the pressure of I have to deliver and we need you absolutely now.
“We have of course at the moment in this position Marcos Alonso, Kenedy and Emerson.
“But hopefully when things go through Marc is the option on this position.
“And I think he can play very well in the back three, so it’s a bit of a profile of Azpi (Azpilicueta) on the left side. He gives us many options.
“Especially for Ben, he’s very, very ambitious, he couldn’t wait to come back to team training.
“Ben looks better and better but a the same time it seems he needs a little more time to adapt to the rhythm and physicality of the match itself, which is absolutely normal.
“It’s not only about training and training exercises and little pitches, it’s at the end a very, very demanding league.
“And we have to take care about him, it’s our responsibility, so we can’t just throw him in and see what happens.
“He is impatient and we will never expect him to be fully patient, but he knows as we speak a lot about it that everything needs its time, and he will get the time and still we will try to put him on the pitch as soon as possible.
“Because he’s a huge asset for us on the left side with his speed and repetition of intensity.”
Cucurella’s arrival hands Tuchel the kind of depth and quality at wing-back he has craved ever since his first days at Stamford Bridge.
Highly-rated Colwill’s loan to Brighton represents another boost for Chelsea, with the Seagulls having pushed hard initially to recruit the 19-year-old on a permanent deal.
“I’m really happy, it’s a big opportunity for me to join one of the best clubs in the world and I’m going to work hard to be happy here and help the team,” said Cucurella.
Chelsea chairman and co-controlling owner Todd Boehly hailed another signing already boasting Premier League experience, one of the Blues’ main aims this summer.
“Marc is an elite defender of proven Premier League quality and he further strengthens our squad going into the new season,” said Boehly.
“We continue to work on and off the pitch, and we’re delighted Marc will be a part of the present and future at Chelsea.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here