Chelsea chief Todd Boehly could bank north of £100million from Arsenal in the space of 12 months if they flog Marc Cucurella to the Gunners. Mikel Arteta is reportedly keeping tabs on the left-back, who may follow Kai Havertz from Stamford Bridge to the Emirates Stadium if a proposal is put together in the summer.
After a rocky opening campaign at Chelsea, Cucurella showed signs of a player growing in confidence earlier this season. Any momentum was promptly stopped in its tracks by an ankle injury which required surgery in December, however.
The issue is projected to keep him out of action until March at the earliest, almost certainly ruling out a move away from west London this month. But Arsenal boss Arteta is reportedly tracking the 25-year-old with a view to swooping at the end of the season.
According to journalist Simon Phillips, whispers linking Cucurella to the Gunners are ‘bubbling up’. But Arteta surely couldn’t be foolish enough to make the same mistake twice.
As would be the case with Cucurella, the Arsenal boss signed Havertz in the hope that he could take a struggling Chelsea star and turn him into a world beater. His experiment set club chiefs back an eye-watering £65million, and it hasn’t worked so far.
Havertz’s wastefulness in front of goal was on full display in the Gunners’ 2-0 defeat at home to Liverpool on Monday, with a host of missed chances seeing Arsenal crash out of the FA Cup in the third round.
“Everything is starting to come together,” he said in December. “A lot of the things he was doing right, he’s continued to do and now obviously in front of goal, he’s being very efficient.
“He’s been very positive and he’s been so influential in a good way to his team-mates and the team, but obviously his confidence grows. When you feel loved, when you feel respected and when you feel admired, things are much easier. Your energy is better, your body language is better and I think that’s the way he’s felt in the last few days.”
