Marc Cucurella shows true Chelsea colours in fascinating and brutally honest interview

Marc Cucurella is pretty much how you would expect.

On the pitch, he leaves it all out there. He riles other players - and supporters - up with how he is during a game. And off the pitch, it is unsurprising that he is very transparent and honest about anything you ask him.

While Cucurella has undoubtedly become one of the best left-backs in the Premier League over the course of the 2024/25 season, the Spaniard has done it with irritating others. Crucially, Chelsea supporters have grown to love the plucky defender, who signed from Brighton in 2022 for £60million, while other fans do not hide their anger with the full-back whenever he is in front of them.

His on-pitch behaviour causes mass frustration in away matches and Cucurella very quickly becomes public enemy number one. Yet he does not seem fazed - not one bit - about how his actions rub some people up the wrong way. Instead, he laughs.

"They [rival fans] don't leave me alone, no one. Never!" Cucurella said with a giggle when being interviewed in Chelsea's team hotel in New York, just a few days before the Blues' FIFA Club World Cup final with Paris Saint-Germain. "It was tough at the beginning because I think I'm not a player that has the quality to take the ball and change the game in one action and pass three players. I'm more of a player that needs to have the team playing well to show my qualities."

Cucurella is someone who does not take himself too seriously - in a good way - when interacting with others. He has often been described by his colleagues as the 'class clown' and even said it about himself during the sit-down interview in New York.

When he arrived in the room, one journalist said: "I just want to say, thank you, Marc, for all your help on this tour", in reference to Cucurella often taking on media duties when he is under no obligation to. Cucurella smiled and laughed, replying: "They don't pay me for this."

That set the tone for a fascinating interview and one where you could have a laugh and joke with the Spaniard. Yet when he talks about his football, he takes himself very seriously. It has not always been a smiling matter for Cucurella at Chelsea. In February 2023, Cucurella was substituted in the second-half of the Blues' draw at West Ham United and was booed off by sections of the away end at the London Stadium.

"At the beginning it was very tough because the team didn’t have maybe identity or didn’t have a clear way to play," the left-back said when asked about his difficulties adapting at Chelsea. "I think I struggled a little there and then I understood that the club paid a lot of money for me so they expect that I’m a machine and I score every game!

"I think with time to think about me, to work on me - it’s true that since before I joined Chelsea, I always play like every game, I played more in small clubs so you don’t feel this pressure. So when I played at other clubs, it’s like when we win, I’m very happy, if we draw it’s another point, don’t get relegated. But when you come here, you feel like you need to win every game.

"The first games [at Chelsea] I don’t feel like I enjoyed, because it’s like, me for example, when I win, it’s very important, but when you join here, it’s like ‘you win, ok, it’s your job’ and you don’t celebrate. So it’s difficult to feel this pressure but I think I try always to work and improve and I think when I have the injury, I stay a lot of time away and I have the time to think about me and what’s good for me and I come back stronger.

"I know that if every day I try to give my best, it’s only the best for me so I’m always thinking about it and I can then show my qualities. The most important thing, it’s difficult, but it’s to not lose my confidence.

"I’m the same player that I was when I signed in my first years but now I have more confidence on me, I trust my quality and it’s difficult to understand that when you play a good game, you’re not the best and when you play a bad game, you’re not the worst. You need to always try to stay in the same line. It’s an important thing to learn in the big clubs."

It was not until the latter stages of the 2023/24 campaign under Mauricio Pochettino that Cucurella really started to enjoy his football in west London. Cucurella was missing for almost three months with an ankle injury - a time he admitted was very difficult for him personally - before returning in early March 2024. It was almost two months later where the Spain international really started to remodel his Chelsea career.

A tactical change from Pochettino in the 2-2 draw at Aston Villa has seemingly changed the course of Cucurella's future. The former Chelsea head coach told the left-back to invert while the side were in possession at Villa Park; a change that the Blues felt the immediate rewards of - and one that Enzo Maresca has benefitted from immensely during his debut season at Stamford Bridge.

"I started to enjoy my journey here after my injury," Cucurella explained. "When I was injured, I was three months out, and then I had a lot of time to think about myself and to know me 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 the team. Then I came here in the summer and everything was better. The manager, with his ideas, helped me a lot. He brought the best football out of me. I had to choose, 2024 was my best year of football and hopefully I can do it even better."

It has been an incredible 12 months for Cucurella. Almost a year ago to the day, he helped Spain triumph in the Euro 2024 final against England, and has since lifted the Conference League trophy and starred as Chelsea qualified for Champions League football.

It can become three major honours in a year for Cucurella should he help Chelsea beat the odds and overcome Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday. PSG, less than two months after thrashing Inter Milan in the Champions League final, are well renowned now as - unofficially - the best team in the land, yet Chelsea can officially take that title from them at the MetLife Stadium.

Despite many already writing Chelsea off, Cucurella remains confident: "I have a lot of confidence in the team, we arrive here in a good moment. I think the Benfica game, before the storm and those crazy minutes, I think we controlled the game very good. They didn't create anything.

"I think Palmeiras as well, they score like after a very good action and it's not that big of a chance we concede or a big mistake we made. Another game we play very well and the last one we are very serious.

"I think we arrive in a good moment of form, we have a lot of confidence in our players, in our teammates, in our style so hopefully we can match this energy that they always try to press and make it hard. Hopefully we can put the game in a way we can win."

Cucurella is oozing confidence - he is so sure of himself and his teammates. He has every reason to be, too.