Chelsea's 'Outstanding' Next Move After Marc Cucurella Transfer is Painfully Obvious

He studied journalism at the University of South Wales and published a football book, named Bluebird Heaven, around the same time with Pitch Publishing.

Since then, Jamie has continued to specialise in football journalism, PR and football-related Spanish translation. He has worked with a number of media companies, including Reach PCL, Iconic Group and many more over a decade-long career. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account Chelsea's next move is obvious following Marc Cucurella's shock move to Real Madrid. The Spanish left-back was always a potential departee this summer amid talk of a return home, but it has shocked everyone that he has agreed to move to the Bernabeu.

Cucurella came through Barcelona's famed La Masia academy system, and he has recently said he would find it hard to turn down a return to Camp Nou. But he now joins Barca's arch-rivals, and to put it lightly, that will complicate his visits back home in Catalonia.

For Chelsea, they lose a starting left-back and one of the best in the world, no less, but they now have the opportunity to get an ideal replacement.

Chelsea now have a glaring gap at left-back, but they can replace one of the world's best with the player who could well become the next best. Nathaniel Brown looks almost certain to leave Eintracht Frankfurt this summer, and he is likely to carry a price of around £52m this summer.

That price seems to be scaring off Bayern Munich, who are very interested, but Chelsea have just pocketed £50million from the sale of Cucurella, albeit around £3.5million of that is in add-ons.

The next move should clearly be to go out and buy Brown, who is already dazzling for Germany at the World Cup, scoring in his nation's group stage opener.

There are very few top-level left-backs on the market, and while Brown is still only 22 years of age, he is already entering that conversation. He is also an attacking full-back by nature, which is what makes him a perfect replacement for Cucurella, whose departure will mean a big loss in terms of outlet down the wing and delivery into the box.

Brown is just coming off a season that saw him crowned Frankfurt's Player of the Season, which is pretty rare for a 22-year-old, and especially for a left-back. Jürgen Klopp recently said of Brown: “The boy always has a full set of tools. You can rely on him blindly and he never has problems. He has a good sense of timing to get into the penalty box and feels comfortable in half-spaces,”

Elsewhere, RB Leipzig left-back David Raum, who was in competition with Brown for a World Cup spot, said: "He had an outstanding season, even though Eintracht Frankfurt struggled."

Brown was a standout player Bundesliga-wide, and at 22 years of age, the sky seems to be the limit, which is what Chelsea will like. The Blues have focused their transfer strategy on signing young players with big upside, and few players fit better into that strategy than Brown, especially at left-back.

Cucurella's comments will not have gone down well at Chelsea - he didn't hold back.