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Following Enzo Fernández's ongoing flirtation with Real Madrid, Chelsea left back Marc Cucurella has joined the conversation by openly acknowledging his desire to one day return to Barcelona.
A series of back-and-forth statements from Fernández—most recently expressing a public wish to live in Madrid—have cast serious doubt over the Argentine's future at a club whose entire project is currently under scrutiny.
Midfield counterpart Moisés Caicedo chose not to add fuel to speculation surrounding his own potential departure, but Cucurella, while stressing he had no immediate plans to leave Stamford Bridge, couldn't help but acknowledge a longing to return to La Liga.
"At the end of the day, Spain is always Spain," he said. "It's my home country and where I was raised, and you always think about going back, but I think I'd leave it for a few years.
"I'm very happy [in England], my family too, and as a life experience, it's a very good one."
When pushed specifically on a potential move to Barcelona, where Cucurella's career first took shape, the left back added: "Well, it's clear that if something like that happens, it's difficult to turn them down, but I'd have to consider it.
"At the end of the day, it's not just about me. I'd also have to think about my family, maybe, what's best for them or for all of us, but as I said before, I'm not thinking about that right now.
"If it happens, it happens, and we'll see what we decide."
Just hours later, Cucurella sent further shockwaves through Chelsea with a candid and critical assessment of the club's current trajectory.
Cucurella Questions Enzo Maresca Departure
The atmosphere around Stamford Bridge has been fraught ever since manager Enzo Maresca's dismissal in January. Despite inconsistent results on the field, the Italian's departure was largely attributed to a behind-the-scenes clash with a sporting hierarchy already under enormous pressure following the takeover by new owners BlueCo in 2022.
Maresca's successor Liam Rosenior faces mounting pressure of his own after four consecutive losses and a humiliating Champions League exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain—a side the Blues had convincingly beaten in the Club World Cup the previous summer.
"Liam is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters," Cucurella told The Athletic. "He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don't have the time to train them."
Cucurella did, however, echo Fernández's view that Chelsea made a mistake in parting ways with Maresca to begin with.
"With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months," he continued. "If you look at our first preseason 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.
"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.
"We knew what Maresca wanted from us. Winning a title like the Club World Cup also helps, strengthens the bond, and you create great relationships during the celebrations. When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you'd die for him.
"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 preseason.
"The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is."
Chelsea's Transfer Policy Comes Under Fire
The 8–2 aggregate loss to PSG proved especially damaging for Chelsea and intensified pre-existing concerns about the squad's overall composition.
Club officials have prioritized the signing of young, dynamic talents with high ceiling potential, choosing them over more experienced veterans who may offer less resale value but bring the kind of know-how the dressing room desperately needs.
At 28, Tosin Adarabioyo is the oldest player in Chelsea's squad, narrowly ahead of goalkeeper Robert Sánchez and 27-year-old Cucurella, and the left back acknowledged that the club's "build for later" philosophy has taken a genuine psychological toll.
"Results like [the PSG defeat] are always hard to take," Cucurella said. "You are fighting and training every day only to realize, 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 only might 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."