Chelsea open to Marc Cucurella January transfer
According to reporters, Chelsea is open to listen to bids for defender Marc Cucurella ahead of a possible January transfer move.
The £62 million ($75.5 million) summer transfer from Brighton made his second appearance of the season in Wednesday’s 1-0 Carabao Cup fourth-round triumph over his former side, although he has yet to play a single Premier League minute since Mauricio Pochettino took over as manager in July.
Cucurella told newsmen in an exclusive July interview that he intended to stay with the club and fight for his spot, but a lack of consistent minutes in the coming months will likely push him to reconsider.
Chelsea were prepared to loan the 25-year-old to Manchester United this summer, but the agreement fell through after Cucurella appeared in the club’s last Carabao Cup match against AFC Wimbledon.
FIFA laws state that a player cannot represent three clubs in a single season, and negotiations went down because United sought to include a break option in any agreement that would allow them to return Cucurella to Chelsea.
According to reports in Spain, Real Madrid is considering a loan bid in January, and the prospect of returning to his birth nation is understood to appeal to Cucurella. United are unlikely to re-enter the race after signing Sergio Reguilón on loan from Tottenham after abandoning Cucurella.
Chelsea would prefer a permanent transfer to help balance the books after another summer of expenditure that brought Chelsea’s total outlay on transfers beyond the £1 billion mark since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over the club last May.
