[Football] Marc Cucurella

[Weststander]

I've made 10 or so posts on their forum in the last month but no real idea how they feel about me as I'm not really interested in what they've got to say as they're apart from the odd good apple seems like dull and permanently angry wankers, so you'll have to ask the people here who waste time surfing and taking print shoots of their forum.

Shedend's boring.

Very short posts, it seems devoid of analysis or much interest in the non-football planet.

With a herd mentality, they all jump on bandwagons in hating a Chelsea player or executive.

 

[drew]

Yeah everyone looking outside-in says that and everyone actually involved says "we're human". Just look at the Wrexham thing or any other decent football documentary and you'll find it is "funny sideshow" if you're a fan and less so if you're a player or manager getting shit poured over them and their kids getting bullied and recieving shit on social media etc.

In some clubs, legends are treated like legends and that makes them more likely to come back and do their outmost for the club. If you look at the most successful clubs in the world (less so in England tbf), they've been able to retain the competence of players and ex-players. You play hundreds of games for a club, get treated as a legend even if you move somewhere or oversee a few bad performances, and then you can always return with a full desire to the best for the club.

That is slowly changing everywhere though. Unfortunately in my opinion but perhaps a logical development aligning with rest of society - people love to be angry, upset, offended and pissed off and will take every opportunity to do that. Much easier than to be grateful and that goes for football fans to: you have a choice between celebrating ten years of hard, successful work or you have the opportunity to boo someone for making a decision to move on after those ten years, and most go with the latter. IMO it is a part of what ruins modern football as it really shows the massive distance between players/staff & those in the stands (and this goes both ways; footballers struggle to identify with fans who won't treat them as humans and fans struggle to warm to people who live in a different bubble), but you know.. it is what it is.

To be honest, I don't recognize that. Potter did remarkably well for us but I'm not sure he gets 'legendary' status. Brighton fans can recognize a legend. Take Glen Murray for example. Even when moving to our arch rivals he was always treated with respect and that was reciprocated. Zamora another one.

 

[southstandandy]

Objectively Cucu would have benefitted from at least one more (possibly 2 seasons with us) as it was quite a gamble for Chelsea to take a player from us who only had 1 season's experience in the Prem. Ultimately his departure was handled badly by his agent in my view, but looking at it now the £62m looks like we mugged them big time. The grass is not always greener even if the money is. I have nothing against Cucu personally but it wouldn't surprise to me to see him move on from Chelsea within a couple of years (and it won't be an upward move).

 

[Swansman]

To be honest, I don't recognize that. Potter did remarkably well for us but I'm not sure he gets 'legendary' status. Brighton fans can recognize a legend. Take Glen Murray for example. Even when moving to our arch rivals he was always treated with respect and that was reciprocated. Zamora another one.

I was referring to Bruno. 10 years, 235 games on the pitch, leading the team to getting promoted to the top tier for not-the-umpteenth time in the clubs history and then being a force to be reckoned with in trying to stay up. Maybe doesnt make you a legend but should put you in that ball park.

 

[Triggaaar]

I genuinely think he didn’t have a clue that was coming yesterday.

I’m sure he thought that we would all be fully understanding and supportive of his move to a bigger club.

I think Potter a little bit the same too judging by his post game comments.

Chelsea's pursuit of Paul Winstanley was badly timed. I'm not sure we'd have reacted to Cucu & co so badly without the latest Chelsea crap.

 

[Seagull27]

To be honest, I don't recognize that. Potter did remarkably well for us but I'm not sure he gets 'legendary' status. Brighton fans can recognize a legend. Take Glen Murray for example. Even when moving to our arch rivals he was always treated with respect and that was reciprocated. Zamora another one.

That's not actually true, in either case - Murray got a fair amount of abuse when he left for Palace and in the first couple of games against us (Gleeeeenn Murray is a wanker, is a wanker). But it was his reaction that earned respect, in two ways - firstly he scored against us on a number of occasions, which shut us up. And secondly, he never celebrated. Also, I'd say that not a single Brighton fan considered him a legend in the period before he returned to us.

And Zamora received death threats when there was talk of him moving to Palace.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Chelsea's pursuit of Paul Winstanley was badly timed. I'm not sure we'd have reacted to Cucu & co so badly without the latest Chelsea crap.

You’re probably right, it just reignited the animosity.

I think from the fans, players and coaches there was a collective standing up for ourselves yesterday. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Seagull27]

Yeah everyone looking outside-in says that and everyone actually involved says "we're human". Just look at the Wrexham thing or any other decent football documentary and you'll find it is "funny sideshow" if you're a fan and less so if you're a player or manager getting shit poured over them and their kids getting bullied and recieving shit on social media etc.

In some clubs, legends are treated like legends and that makes them more likely to come back and do their outmost for the club. If you look at the most successful clubs in the world (less so in England tbf), they've been able to retain the competence of players and ex-players. You play hundreds of games for a club, get treated as a legend even if you move somewhere or oversee a few bad performances, and then you can always return with a full desire to the best for the club.

That is slowly changing everywhere though. Unfortunately in my opinion but perhaps a logical development aligning with rest of society - people love to be angry, upset, offended and pissed off and will take every opportunity to do that. Much easier than to be grateful and that goes for football fans to: you have a choice between celebrating ten years of hard, successful work or you have the opportunity to boo someone for making a decision to move on after those ten years, and most go with the latter. IMO it is a part of what ruins modern football as it really shows the massive distance between players/staff & those in the stands (and this goes both ways; footballers struggle to identify with fans who won't treat them as humans and fans struggle to warm to people who live in a different bubble), but you know.. it is what it is.

I agree with a lot of your post, but the thing that ruins modern football far more is when clubs like us put in years and years of effort, intelligent recruitment and building a club structure like few others have. Only for someone with a lot of money to go "yep that looks like it's working well, I'll buy the lot". It's a little unfortunate for Graham, Bruno, Roberts, Cucu etc that they have to bear the brunt of it as individually, if one of them had been poached by Chelsea I don't think there would have been too many complaints. But all of them being poached at the same time is what rankles, with no regard for the dismantling of our club - and we as Brighton fans can't target our anger towards the Chelsea owners with any meaningful impact, so we can only target the public faces of the move.

Being booed and (verbally, inoffensively) abused by opposition fans at a football match is part of the game and if they can't handle that, they need to look at themselves.

Being abused outside of a match, on social media, anything based on racial/sexual preference etc, or targeting their families - anything beyond the pantomime banter of football is of course unacceptable and needs to be dealt with.

 

[birthofanorange]

I've made 10 or so posts on their forum in the last month but no real idea how they feel about me as I'm not really interested in what they've got to say as they're apart from the odd good apple seems like dull and permanently angry wankers, so you'll have to ask the people here who waste time surfing and taking print shoots of their forum.

Maybe you should make more of an effort? I'm sure they'll embrace your interesting take on things.

 

[Sirnormangall]

Objectively Cucu would have benefitted from at least one more (possibly 2 seasons with us) as it was quite a gamble for Chelsea to take a player from us who only had 1 season's experience in the Prem. Ultimately his departure was handled badly by his agent in my view, but looking at it now the £62m looks like we mugged them big time. The grass is not always greener even if the money is. I have nothing against Cucu personally but it wouldn't surprise to me to see him move on from Chelsea within a couple of years (and it won't be an upward move).

Yes, the £62m for Cucu was a very, very good deal. A 4-1 drubbing, £62m con for Cucu and an embarrassment for their management team has made for a wonderful weekend. Thank you Chelsea.

 

[Whitechapel]

To be honest, I don't recognize that. Potter did remarkably well for us but I'm not sure he gets 'legendary' status. Brighton fans can recognize a legend. Take Glen Murray for example. Even when moving to our arch rivals he was always treated with respect and that was reciprocated. Zamora another one.

That is quite frankly, bollocks.

When he went off injured in the first leg of the play-offs there was a lot of people cheering and giving him grief. In fact I’d argue it was over 50% of the away crowd that day.

 

[Weststander]

Genuinely (not in hindsight), did anyone here think Cucu’s game was lacking at all last season?

I felt he lacked a bit of pace in defence and that he suffered a long dip in form mid season (from the heights he set initially in Sept21).

POTS seemed to be achieved in the final few months, personally I preferred the unerring 8/10 and occasional 9/10’s of the classy Veltman.

It doesn’t surprise me that Cucu’s form has been up and down at Chelsea, especially with the pressure.

 

[Bodian]

Genuinely (not in hindsight), did anyone here think Cucu’s game was lacking at all last season?

I felt he lacked a bit of pace in defence and that he suffered a long dip in form mid season (from the heights he set initially in Sept21).

POTS seemed to be achieved in the final few months, personally I preferred the unerring 8/10 and occasional 9/10’s of the classy Veltman.

It doesn’t surprise me that Cucu’s form has been up and down at Chelsea, especially with the pressure.

It was said on here quite a few times that he always looked fantastic going forward, but maybe not so good at the back.

 

[Weststander]

That is quite frankly, bollocks.

When he went off injured in the first leg of the play-offs there was a lot of people cheering and giving him grief. In fact I’d argue it was over 50% of the away crowd that day.

I agree with @drew.

Muzza generally got respect from us during that spell. One key reason was that in the Sept11 Amex game where he outclassed our entire defence, he stayed humble as the goals rolled on.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

That is quite frankly, bollocks.

When he went off injured in the first leg of the play-offs there was a lot of people cheering and giving him grief. In fact I’d argue it was over 50% of the away crowd that day.

No it wasn’t. It was a group of young lads who were soon told to shut up.

 

[Swansman]

Genuinely (not in hindsight), did anyone here think Cucu’s game was lacking at all last season?

I felt he lacked a bit of pace in defence and that he suffered a long dip in form mid season (from the heights he set initially in Sept21).

POTS seemed to be achieved in the final few months, personally I preferred the unerring 8/10 and occasional 9/10’s of the classy Veltman.

It doesn’t surprise me that Cucu’s form has been up and down at Chelsea, especially with the pressure.

If you go back and read posts from last season, what you're saying now looks a lot like hindsight.

He had a few bad games (mid-season) but so did Veltman (first month).

I really don't think his defending was the problem but I did feel he was overrated in the attacking sense. Always available and always combining nicely, but couldn't cross the ball and completely lacks a right foot.

I think his struggles are mainly down to two things:
1. Body - he spent a week in the hospital this summer and lost 5 kilos. Thats like 8% of his body weight and can take a long time to fully recover from.
2. Mind - things didn't start well for him and there's a sense of insecurity in what he does on the pitch

I think he'll be fine and eventually contribute to the Chelsea team though not so sure his quality warrants a £60m+ transfer fee.

 

[LamieRobertson]

If you go back and read posts from last season, what you're saying now looks a lot like hindsight.

He had a few bad games (mid-season) but so did Veltman (first month).

I really don't think his defending was the problem but I did feel he was overrated in the attacking sense. Always available and always combining nicely, but couldn't cross the ball and completely lacks a right foot.

I think his struggles are mainly down to two things:
1. Body - he spent a week in the hospital this summer and lost 5 kilos. Thats like 8% of his body weight and can take a long time to fully recover from.
2. Mind - things didn't start well for him and there's a sense of insecurity in what he does on the pitch

I think he'll be fine and eventually contribute to the Chelsea team though not so sure his quality warrants a £60m+ transfer fee.

On what are you basing this

 

[LamieRobertson]

If you go back and read posts from last season, what you're saying now looks a lot like hindsight.

He had a few bad games (mid-season) but so did Veltman (first month).

I really don't think his defending was the problem but I did feel he was overrated in the attacking sense. Always available and always combining nicely, but couldn't cross the ball and completely lacks a right foot.

I think his struggles are mainly down to two things:
1. Body - he spent a week in the hospital this summer and lost 5 kilos. Thats like 8% of his body weight and can take a long time to fully recover from.
2. Mind - things didn't start well for him and there's a sense of insecurity in what he does on the pitch

I think he'll be fine and eventually contribute to the Chelsea team though not so sure his quality warrants a £60m+ transfer fee.

Agree with point one….I understand he’s been on antibiotics for sone while….not sure point two is correct…his first couple of appearances from what I recall were fine

 

[Weststander]

If you go back and read posts from last season, what you're saying now looks a lot like hindsight.

He had a few bad games (mid-season) but so did Veltman (first month).

I really don't think his defending was the problem but I did feel he was overrated in the attacking sense. Always available and always combining nicely, but couldn't cross the ball and completely lacks a right foot.

I think his struggles are mainly down to two things:
1. Body - he spent a week in the hospital this summer and lost 5 kilos. Thats like 8% of his body weight and can take a long time to fully recover from.
2. Mind - things didn't start well for him and there's a sense of insecurity in what he does on the pitch

I think he'll be fine and eventually contribute to the Chelsea team though not so sure his quality warrants a £60m+ transfer fee.

In 2020/21 and 2021/22 midseason and end of season, I frequently posted that Veltman was my potential POTS and then POTS. In the latter, Cucurella just didn’t deserve it, people imho were swayed by our renaissance in the last few months.

Chelsea like Citeh will just keep spending and act quickly, they won’t have any patience for an achilles heel. Cucurella will need to be an unbeatable defensive wall in 8 or 9 games out of 10, to tick their requirements. That will be playing at a higher level than when with us.

 

[Whitechapel]

No it wasn’t. It was a group of young lads who were soon told to shut up.

Well the people next to me who were cheering weren’t young lads and they weren’t told to shut up. Neither were the people in front of me who cheered.

The ones near you might have been told to shut up, but there was a lot of people celebrating. Now If people want to say that some people cheered because they thought he’d dived and didn’t realise he was seriously injured then I’d still disagree that it was the case for everyone but at least it wouldn’t be quite as disingenuous as the current narrative.