I said Chelsea’s £62m signing wasn’t good enough – now I love him

Frank Leboeuf has force to eat his words after declaring his ‘love’ for a Chelsea player he once claime was ‘not good enough’.

Stamford Bridge hero Leboeuf was one of โปรโมชั่นพิเศษจาก UFABET สมัครตอนนี้ รับโบนัสทันที the biggest critics of Chelsea’s £62m move for Marc Cucurella, calling the transfer deal ‘crazy’.

Chelsea signe the Spanish left-back from Premier League rivals Brighton in 2022 but Leboeuf did not think he ‘belonge’ at Stamford Bridge.

‘Hopefully Reece James and Ben Chilwell will go back into fitness as soon as possible because we need them,’ he midway through Cucurella’s first season at Chelsea.

‘We don’t want to see Cucurella anymore. With all due respect to a man that I don’t know, the player is not good enough for Chelsea. It’s as simple as that.

It’s crazy that they signe him for £60m, but we can see that he doesn’t belong to this level.’

Leboeuf regrets being ‘very harsh’ on Cucurella and says he has in fact develope into one of Chelsea’s most important players.

The 26-year-old has feature in all but two of Chelsea’s league games this season and score the winner in Sunday’s narrow victory over Leicester City.

Cucurella’s rise has not limited to club football, with the full-back also playing a starring role in Spain’s Euro 2024 win last summer.

Analysing Chelsea’s hard-fought win over Leicester, Leboeuf said on ‘I want to mention somebody because I was very harsh, very hard on him about two years ago.

Cucurella. I call him Cucu the saviour! That’s what I call him. He’s become my idol! That guy is amazing: defensively, offensively.

‘Cucu the saviour, I love you. But everyone else has to work harder, come on guys! Go back to basics.

‘Chelsea are keeping hold of the ball but doing nothing with it. Then later in the game when they need the ball they give the ball away.

‘They looke completely lost against Leicester. They won, it’s okay, but I’m not very happy with the performance.’

Chelsea have droppe off alarmingly since emerging as Liverpool’s biggest rival for the Premier League title earlier in the season.

But the Leicester win was at least Chelsea’s third in a row and saw them climb back into the Champions League places, above Manchester City who lost to Nottingham Forest.