Chelsea in talks to hijack Manchester City deal for Brighton’s Marc Cucurella — reports

Brighton & Hove Albion left back Marc Cucurella looked set to join Manchester City, but that deal seems to have collapsed, or at least stalled, over the weekend after the two teams failed to agree a transfer fee. Sensing an opportunity, Chelsea have jumped in and are reportedly close to hijacking this deal.

According to multiple reports, including the Athletic, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and the Telegraph, Chelsea are pushing to make this deal happen and pushing hard and fast. The 24-year-old is said to be open to the move, with Brighton wanting around £50m for their reigning Player of the Year.

Chelsea (or Brighton, depending on report) may or may not be wanting to make this part-exchange deal — this seems to be a standard rumor twist, without it ever actually happening — and that player supposedly in question is young Levi Colwill, whom we rate at £20m. That would be an unfortunate development indeed, though we do need to lighten the numbers among the defensive corps one way or another.

Chelsea have been tracking Cucurella for a while, and were first linked with him two years ago, when we ended up acquiring Ben Chilwell. Cucurella can also play on the left side of a back-three, which he had done several times last season, making him a solid, if rather expensive upgrade on Emerson Palmieri (and Marcos Alonso, who would thus be free to leave, probably).