It’s completely fine to acknowledge that you have changed your opinion and in fact, it is much better to do that rather than stay stubborn and dig your heels in.
But when it comes to Marc Cucurella, the guy has made it impossible for people to NOT change their opinion on him. From being booed to being cheered every time he makes a tackle. What a turnaround he has had.
Cucurella was disliked by many Chelsea fans until the summer really when we watched him shine for Spain in the Euros, hoping he would return to Chelsea and play that way here, which he duly did.
Remember Gary Neville saying Spain would not win the Euros and citing Cucurella as the sole reason!? Yikes.
But even though he has been incredible for us this season, you cannot deny that he was nothing more than poor and inconsistent in a Chelsea shirt since arriving from Brighton for £60m.
This was something that always surprised me. As I said at the time and have written in numerous articles since, I was buzzing when we signed Cucurella because I had actually watched a lot of him at Getafe, and I also liked him at Brighton. So I thought we had signed a top left back.
Only Cucurella will be able to tell you what went wrong for him at Chelsea in those early days, but there was a lot of publicised stories about off field personal issues effecting him at that time, so maybe there was an element of that. But whatever changed, long may it continue. Because he has well and truly gone from villain to hero and this just shows you how easily players can do this. You’re never fully down, there is always a way back.
Frank Leboeuf said on Cucurella two years ago:
“We don’t want to see Cucurella anymore. With all due respect to a man that I don’t know, the player is not good enough for Chelsea. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s crazy that they signed him for £60m, but we can see that he doesn’t belong to this level.”
And then this week, he has held his hands up:
“I want to mention somebody because I was very harsh, very hard on him about two years ago.
“Cucurella. I call him Cucu the saviour! That’s what I call him. He’s become my idol! That guy is amazing: defensively, offensively. Cucu the saviour, I love you.”
As I wrote last week, Cucurella has truly stepped up and not just in his quality, but in his influence on the pitch as well. He has matured as more of a leader and has cut out many of the headless moments we used to see from him.
Long may it continue.
