Cucurella urges Moises Caicedo to hitch him at Chelsea as he confirms switch plan
The 24-year-old left-back has been linked with a transfer away from west London only a 12 months on from his £62million transfer from Brighton final summer time.
Cucurella struggled in a turbulent season final 12 months and there’s competitors for locations with Ian Maatsen coming back from a mortgage spell at Burnley to hitch Ben Chilwell and Lewis Hall within the squad.
Speaking forward of Mauricio Pochettino’s first match in opposition to Wrexham within the United States, Cucurella confirmed his want to stay a Chelsea participant: “Yes, for sure I want to stay at Chelsea. I am very happy here.
“It wasn’t an easy season and it was difficult for all the players, we needed time to adapt. You arrive at a big club, you need time to adapt, the results don’t arrive, you feel more pressure and, of course, we are footballer players but we are normal people as well.
“We have problems in our personal lives and people need to understand this as well. This is part of life and these things can improve in the future. I am very happy, I have a lot of energy and I am happy to stay here and do my best for this team and club.”
Chelsea have seen a £70m bid rejected by Brighton for midfielder Caicedo, who performed alongside Cucurella on the south coast.
Cucurella hopes to see his outdated teammate be part of him at Chelsea subsequent season, including: “I’ve read in the media that he wants to come here a lot of times!
“I have a good relationship with him. He is a top player and if he came here I think we would have a top midfielder for a long time.”
Pochettino, in the meantime, has been grilling his younger squad throughout a brutal first two weeks at Cobham coaching centre.
Cucurella is joyful to see his colleagues rebuild their health after being outrun by rivals throughout a horrible season, however admits it has been gruelling. He stated: “For sure, the first weeks were not easy! We worked a lot and ran a lot.
“We had double sessions on a lot of days. At the time, I was not happy but now when I think [about it] I see I spent a good time. You see your team mates suffer and have pain but it helps create good relationships and it moves onto the pitch.
“I think this is important because the Premier League is very hard and we need to improve physically. We need to improve our physicality.
“If you don’t have this then it is impossible to win at this level. We obviously have the quality to play but I didn’t think last season we had the same level. We tried to do our best but we didn’t arrive at the best level. The most important thing and first step is to stay fit and then start to play well.”