Chelsea confirmed the signing of Marc Cucurella from Brighton on a £55 million deal on Friday. Chelsea is hoping to complete the paper works by midnight so that the Spanish international will be eligible for selection on Saturday in their Premier League clash against Everton.
The Blues had beat competition from Manchester City. Marc Cucurella was of the revelation players of last season’s Premier League. The 24-year old impressive performance last season saw him named Brighton Players player of the season and Brighton players of the season.
Thomas Tuchel believes the signing of Marc Cucurella will help release some of the pressure on Ben Chilwell and increase Chelsea’s squad depth.
What did Thomas Tuchel say about the signing of Marc Cucurella?
The 48 -year -old revealed during a press conference when asked if the signing of Marc Cucurella will take the pressure off Ben Chilwell: “Yeah. Absolutely it helps in-depth and especially for Ben to escape the pressure of ‘I have to deliver. We need you absolutely now’. We have, of course, also in this position Marcos Alonso, Kenedy, and Emerson.
“Hopefully when things go through, Marc is the option in this position and he (Cucurella) can play very well in the back three. It’s a profile of Azpi, with the left foot. He gives us many options. Especially, Ben, he is very ambitious like always. He couldn’t wait to come back to team training.
” He looks better and better but at the same time, it looks like he needs more time to adapt to the physicality of the match itself, which is absolutely normal. It is not only about training and training exercises, little pitches. In the end, it is a very demanding leave.
“We have to take care of him, it’s our responsibility. We can’t throw him in and see what is coming. He is impatient, we will never expect him to be fully patient. He knows, we speak a lot about it. Everything needs its time.
“He will get the time and still we will try to put him on the pitch as soon as possible. He is and was a huge asset for us with his speed and repetition of intensity.”
Thomas Tuchel also highlighted the reason Chelsea signed Raheem Sterling and what he could bring to the team.
The Chelsa manager explained: “(Signing Raheem Sterling…) surprised is not the right word. There were rumors, signs it could be possible. Any player with a one-year contract you can try. Very soon we had the feeling it was clear he would be a perfect fit for us in this stage of his career.
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“He gave us the feeling he would be absolutely happy to make this step and step up into a new chapter, a new club, and take even more responsibility in this stage of his career so once we had this feeling and feedback, we tried and succeeded which was for us very important. He is one of our offensive players.
“If we play in the same structure it will be very fluid. It can be Kai, it can be him, it can be Timo Werner, also Armando Broja who is now in the squad. Different profiles, different types of playing. Liverpool and City showed it is possible to be very successful with a fluid type of offensive player in the nine positions. We go from there.”