Chelsea's £62m Cucurella deal is bizarre but don't bet the Spaniard will be a success

Chelsea's rather scattered approach to the transfer window since their takeover has been one of the talking points of pre-season.

New owner Todd Boehly has been a busy man, but has missed a host of players who were apparently key targets.

Jules Kounde, Raphinha and Matthijs de Ligt all went to other clubs; Ousmane Dembele has opted to sign a new contract with Barcelona; and the Blues failed in reported pursuits of Presnel Kimpembe and Nathan Ake. On top of that, Chelsea saw Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen leave on free transfers.

Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville compared Boehly's activity to someone playing the Football Manager video game.

But for all their failed deals, Chelsea brought in Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and now Marc Cucurella.

The deal for the latter, however, certainly didn't come without criticism. First of all, Chelsea could end up paying Brighton and Hove Albion £62m for the Spaniard which would be a world record for a left-back.

Manchester City were apparently unwilling to pay more than £30m for him, so why are Chelsea so convinced of him?

MAKE YOUR MARK OUTSIDE SPAIN

A graduate of Barcelona's La Masia academy, Cucurella has always looked extremely promising.

As such, it was a surprise Barca ever let him go on loan to Eibar with an option to buy in the first place four years ago. It was even more bizarre 12 months later when the Blaugrana exercised their buyout clause just 16 days after officially selling him, to loan him back to Getafe on a €6m option - and apparently 40% of any future fee transfers - approximately 48 hours later.

His form at Eibar and Getafe regularly suggested Barca were myopic, although neither the club nor Brighton were seen as particularly fashionable, which may explain why he's only played once yet. times for Spain.

You could even say that Cucurella's only season at Brighton went unnoticed until interest from City surfaced a few weeks ago - but make no mistake, he reached the Premier League from impressively, his development in the physically intense squads of Jose Luis Mendilibar and Jose Bordalas clearly comes in handy.

The 24-year-old was used primarily in his preferred left-back position last season, while also filling in at left-back and left-centre-back at a time when Brighton needed them, despite previous doubts about his ability to defend himself.

"There were people saying I couldn't play as a full-back because I couldn't defend, but now I'm proving I can even play as a centre-back in a back three" , Cucurella told the Spaniard. Marca release earlier this year.

"What I was looking for was to play as a full-back, which I have done all my life. I had never played as a left-sided centre-back before, but [coach -Brighton chef Graham Potter] gave me the confidence to feel very comfortable there."

Dipped into the depths as Brighton faced an injury crisis midway through the 2021-22 season - his first outside his native Spain - Cucurella more than passed the test and added further strings to his bow.

CUCURELLA THE VERSATILE

Whether as full-back, full-back or centre-back, Cucurella helped Brighton keep 11 clean sheets in the Premier League last season, a tally only six other clubs could do better.

Far from being someone who is incapable of defending, he led the way among players who played mainly as full-backs in England's top flight last season in terms of winning possession, doing so 247 times .

He also trailed Tyrick Mitchell in tackles - 93 to the Crystal Palace youngster's 104 - showing he's happy to get stuck in when needed.

The one-cap Spanish international has also proven he's capable of attacking, with his 40 chances in open play putting him behind only new team-mate Reece James (42) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (51), whom many would like to consider two of the best attacking full-backs around.

Granted, those key passes only translated into one assist - for context, James recorded nine last season - but some of that can be attributed to the finishing of Brighton's attacking players, rather only to Cucurella alone who failed to deliver from afar. /p>

Indeed, his expected assist return (xA) of 2.8 last season was still the 14th highest of any full-back. While that might not sound exceptional, it's worth bearing in mind that the only players to surpass 4.0 xA were James (4.7), Andrew Robertson (5.5), Joao Cancelo (6.6) and Alexander Arnold (13), all of whom obviously play in clubs. who dominate most of their games.

Furthermore, given his almost ten years in Barca's youth formation and then on the fringes of the first team, it's no surprise to see that Cucurella is very comfortable on the ball to him...