Chelsea have announced the signing of Marc Cucurella, with the defender joining from Brighton for a monster fee.

After days of high stakes wrangling back and forth, the left back will join the club for an initial fee north of £55m.

He was registered in time to make his debut tomorrow, potentially, with Ben Chilwell’s fitness not yet secure. It would be a quick turnaround, but it’s a gamble we might see Thomas Tuchel take given how much he seems to like the player, and the lack of other options.

CLUB STATEMENT: MARC CUCURELLA.

Following reports from numerous media outlets this week, we can confirm an agreement has been reached with Brighton and Hove Albion for the signing of Marc Cucurella.

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 5, 2022

Brighton released a statement on Twitter earlier in the week denying that a deal had been agreed, and Chelsea parodied that deal in their Twitter announcement of the completion of the deal.

We hope that this was cleared with the Seagulls – the new owners have been at pains to make friends with the other teams in the league, and this won’t have endeared them to Brighton.