Chelsea star Marc Cucurella admits he wanted to join Premier League rivals

Chelsea star Marc Cucurella has spoken about his desire to move to a Premier League rival of the Blues before arriving at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2022

Marc Cucurella admitted he was desperate to join Manchester City before agreeing to join Chelsea. The Spaniard wanted to depart Brighton to link up with Pep Guardiola but a deal did not come to fruitition.

City saw multiple bids rejected, and Cucurella even submitted a transfer request in an effort to force through a transfer to the Etihad Stadium. Ultimately, Chelsea entered the picture and stumped up a fee in the region of £63million to leave City out of the race, with Guardiola instead turning to Manuel Akanji and Sergio Gomez during the 2022 summer transfer window. Akanji was often the figure to play on the left as the Catalan coach used central defenders across his backline.

Cucurella admitted City's exploits had left him keen to move. Guardiola's side had not long won the Premier League and reached the semi-final of the Champions League, and went on to win both after missing out on the full-back's signature.

Cucurella told Informe: "Man City wanted me before I joined Chelsea. They were on fire, one of the best teams in the world. I wanted to go.

"When they come like they did, when Guardiola asks, you’ll go on your knees if necessary. But the clubs couldn’t reach an agreement."

Despite impressing during his first season in the Premier League with Brighton, Cucurella struggled initially with Chelsea. The Spain international saw three different managers in his first term at Stamford Bridge and could not recapture his form.

That is far cry from how he is now perceived in west London. Under Enzo Maresca, Cucurella has transformed into a key player, finally settling after a long stint out of action and playing more than anyone else at the club last term.

Cucurella said in the summer: “I started to enjoy my journey here after my injury. When I was injured, I was three months out, and then I had a lot of time to think about myself and to know myself better and what is good for me and what I needed to work on more.

“This is probably the moment that changed my career. Yes, it was a bad moment, it was very tough for me. But then after this injury, my first game back when I played against Leicester, I scored.

“Then that evening, the national team called me because they had an injured left back. Everything moved forward. Then the summer, I played the Euros, six games in an inverted role. After the Euros, I won a lot of confidence because we played amazing football and I was very important in this team.

“Then I came back to Chelsea in the summer and everything was better. The manager, with his ideas, helped me a lot. He brought my best football out of me. I had to choose, 2024 was my best year of football and hopefully I can do it even better.”