Marc Cucurella hits out at Chelsea transfer policy in bombshell interview

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·31 March 2026

Marc Cucurella hits out at Chelsea transfer policy in bombshell interview

Full-back has been left “discouraged”

Marc Cucurella has criticised Chelsea’s youth-centric transfer policy.

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The Spanish left-back is a big personality and a leading voice in the Chelsea dressing room but has made his feelings known in a bombshell interview while on international duty with Spain.

Under the BlueCo consortium, which has formed the club’s ownership since 2022, there has been a concerted effort to almost exclusively sign young players seen internally as possessing huge potential and with high market value.

This has led to concerns regarding the level of experience or maturity within the Chelsea squad. The Conference League and Club World Cup last season are the only trophies Chelsea have won since BlueCo bought the club from Roman Abramovich, and Chelsea earlier this month were thrashed 8-2 by Paris Saint-Germain to exit the Champions League.

“We lacked experience,” Cucurella told The Athletic when asked about Chelsea’s mauling at the hands of the French giants.

“For a lot of players, it was the first time playing a match of that calibre, and we paid the price.

“You can always make a mistake, but we should have handled it better. There was a return game to play, and if you keep a cool head, you go back to London with a 3-2 defeat [ which was the score with five minutes left of regulation time in the first leg] and anything can happen.

“We made a mistake, tried to attack without a clear structure and then PSG took the chance and proved they have that cutting edge.”

Cucurella’s brutal verdict on Chelsea's direction continued, as he said: “You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level.

“I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction — signing young players and looking to the future. But for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged.

“We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more. Signing young players might only complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that.

“You need time as well, and I know the young players are the ones that will have the experience in the future. But you need to find the balance between both worlds.”