Cucu bluntly on Chelsea sacking Maresca: "I would not have made this decision"

Yesterday, Marc Cucurella stirred a lot of dust, admitting he'd find it hard to reject his boyhood club, Barcelona, if the Catalans came knocking on his door.

However, that's nothing compared to what his interview with The Athletic may do in the coming days, as the Spaniard openly criticized Chelsea's project and transfer policy, claiming that there were too many youngsters in the squad and that it prevented the Blues from fighting for major trophies.

Memories of La Masia still fresh – Cucurella would find it hard to turn down Barcelona

"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 only might complicate achieving those goals."

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"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," Cucurella said via Yahoo Sports.

Then, he went on to comment on the new boss, Liam Rosenior, who has lately been frequently faulted and labelled as the main culprit for the club's subpar results and too inexperienced for Chelsea's bench.

"Liam is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters. He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don’t have the time to train them. We train on (playing in) competitive games, because we play every three days and that leaves you with no time to work on the training ground. In this context, it is normal that your plans sometimes don’t work out, and then we go through difficult moments," the left-back came to the tactician's defence.

Cucurella and Rosenior (©AFP)

Liam is good, but...

"With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him, there were doubts. You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time," Cucurella started his remark on the former Blues manager.

However, he did not stop there. Instead, he - according to many - fired another shot at the club's management.

"The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision. To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season…" he bluntly stated.

In the end, Cucurella pointed out a relevant example from Chelsea's neighbourhood of how things should be done.

"Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with (Mikel) Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards," the defender concluded.

Now, it remains to be seen how the Blues' management will react to Cucurella's "rush of honesty" and whether he will face consequences.