Chelsea Confidential: The Marc Cucurella comment that should worry club chiefs most - and what it reveals about squad, Liam Rosenior's top-secret referees meeting and a new Mykhailo Mudryk contract mystery

Liam Rosenior will not need a warning from the Chelsea comms team before walking into his Friday morning press conference that he will face questions on Marc Cucurella.

Rosenior will have read Cucurella’s comments while the left back was away with Spain, casting doubt on the timing of sacking Enzo Maresca, and whether the club's recruitment strategy is correct. While Rosenior may seek to play down the remarks, they should worry Chelsea.

First, Enzo Fernandez. Now, Cucurella. It is a case of two members of their own ‘leadership group’ casting doubt on the calls made by those above them, and enough to suggest Chelsea are facing a fight to convince their biggest names that this project is worth the best years of their careers.

They have been signing starlets for the future, but Cucurella was speaking from the perspective of a player in the present who, at 27 years old, wants to compete for the biggest trophies before it is too late.

He doubts their Premier League and Champions League credentials if the youth-led approach to recruitment is not adjusted, and whereas previously these questions were coming at Chelsea from the outside, suddenly they are arriving from the inside.

It will be harder for Rosenior et al to disregard these comments from Cucurella. He is one of the most polite players going in the game. When Chelsea need someone to speak to the media, he is seen as a safe go-to.

Marc Cucurella caused a stir this week with an interview saying he was not happy with the timing of Enzo Maresca's sacking, or the recruitment strategy

While Liam Rosenior may seek to play down the remarks, they should worry Chelsea

Indeed, before the Club World Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain, when Maresca declined to do a sit-down with the written media who had spent the last month in the United States, and Cucurella stepped in.

Whereas other players might have shied away from questions on club issues while with their country, Cucurella answered them. He has earned that authority after signing for the club from Brighton for £60million in 2022 and rising to become one of their most reliable performers at left back.

Cucurella will only have two years left on his contract this summer, which is usually the time when Chelsea, under their BlueCo ownership, choose either to extend or sell.

Only time will tell if they listened to Cucurella's message, with it now apparent that some of the core members of Rosenior’s squad want convincing by the business they conduct in the next summer transfer window.

How Blues will replace 'Barney'

Last month it was confirmed that David Barnard, Chelsea’s director of football operations who joined in 2002, would be retiring. Confidential can now shed light on the succession plan for 'Barney', though it is not a like-for-like substitute taking sole possession of his responsibilities.

Pete Nuttall has taken on the title of director of football operations in what is an in-house promotion. However, we are told Barnard’s role will effectively be shared between three members of the existing team. We have not had confirmation of the other two names alongside Nuttall's.

In December 2023, the football operations and administration department celebrated a combined 100 years of service at Chelsea, with their four-person team made up of Barnard, Nuttall, Jane Fitzgerald and Kim Mall.

Nuttall originally worked with Chelsea from 2008 as a member of the Thomas Cook team who looked after all of the club’s travel requirements. He joined the Blues permanently in 2016 as he took on the (often stressful) responsibility for the travel of the men, women and academy, as well as tours, friendlies, FIFA and UEFA competitions, et cetera, working closely with Barnard.

Chelsea are still finalising this summer's plans. They have already announced two games in Sydney, Australia – Western Sydney Wanderers on July 28 and Tottenham on August 1 – but more are likely to follow.

Another new position for McFarlane

Rosenior’s assistant Calum McFarlane watched the first half of their 3-0 loss at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium from the stands for a bird’s eye view of the game.

McFarlane, who was promoted from managing the Under 21s to the first-team staff in January, moved back to the bench for the second half in that deflating defeat.

Calum McFarlane (left) has held a number of roles this season - including head coach, briefly - and now holds another

It is not an uncommon approach in football. Other mangers, including Everton boss David Moyes, occasionally have one of their coaching aides watching from the stands alongside analysts while communicating with those in the dugout.

Rugby coaches (who admittedly have less need to impart instructions from the touchline) often prefer a view from the stands too.

Give Cole a role

Corners taken by Cole Palmer for Chelsea in all competitions this season: two. Corners taken by Palmer for England in this international break: six.

Thomas Tuchel sees something in Palmer’s delivery, which can be dangerous. One of his corners versus Uruguay led to a goal for Ben White, while there was another wide free-kick from which Dominic Calvert-Lewin should have scored in that disappointing 1-1 draw.

Cole Palmer has a great delivery from corners and is hardly a threat in the air - so why don't Chelsea take advantage of that?

However, it is not a side we have seen from him for Chelsea this season. He has taken only two corners in total with both coming in the Premier League – one against West Ham in January and the other against Newcastle in March. In 2024-25, he took 75. In 2023-24, 55. Chelsea’s preferred takers have been Reece James, Pedro Neto and Fernandez, but you do wonder if Rosenior noted Palmer’s efforts for his country.

While criticised for how often he lost the ball – including before the Japanese winner from Kaoru Mitoma – at least Palmer was trying to do something with it on occasion. The same cannot be said for others in the England team.

Liam links up with refs

Rosenior has held an in-person meeting with representatives from the Premier League and the PGMOL.

While you imagine huddle-gate was brought up, sources are declining to say what was specifically discussed, who was present, or even whether it was held at Cobham. It all makes it sound oh-so top secret.

Chelsea have received seven red cards in the Premier League this season, three more than any other team

One contact at least described it to us as a 'new manager induction meeting' in which a rep from the PGMOL management team, led by Howard Webb, can talk refereeing approaches to bosses who have just started in the top flight.

Rosenior has had his issues with officiating of late, not least when he believed Chelsea were denied a penalty in their 1-0 home defeat by Newcastle for a challenge by Nick Woltemade on Palmer.

New Mudryk mystery

The FA have released their latest batch of football agent payments, which show Chelsea paid £65.1million to intermediaries from February last year to February this – by far the most of any Premier League side. The next nearest is Aston Villa on £38.4m, then Manchester City on £37.4m.

But what we find more intriguing is in the FA’s list of agent transactions. There, it shows the suspended Mykhailo Mudryk as having had an ‘updated contract’ over the last year. He has not played for Chelsea since November 2024 due to failing a doping test.

Cucurella is another who had an ‘updated contract’, though Confidential previously explained how that happened in secret and why it was never announced, presumably because it did not add any years to his stay. Rather, it was a way of bumping up his pay as a reward.

Women's team make their mark

Chelsea Women are in the process of trademarking a new tag line ‘CFCW NEVER DONE’, having submitted a filing with the UK Intellectual Property Office yesterday.

It is now awaiting examination with the club looking to use it for clothing, advertising, and the like.

Chelsea's women's team collected their 19th major trophy last month, beating Manchester United 2-0 in the League Cup final at Bristol City's Ashton Gate

On the hunt for (another) lawyer

There is plenty of legal work going in the Premier League nowadays, and Chelsea have started advertising a position for a new UK qualified lawyer.

The candidate’s responsibilities would include ‘providing accurate, timely and commercially-minded legal advice on a range of regulatory matters, including members of senior and executive management and the board of directors’, and ‘pro-actively working and assisting in tasks and initiatives to ensure the club complies with its various legal and statutory obligations’.

You suspect he or she may need to have a good grasp on numbers, too, given the financials flying around.

Chelsea announced on Wednesday morning how their results for 2024-25 saw them suffer a Premier League-record loss before taxation worth £262.4m – a whopping deficit that overtakes Manchester City’s £197.5m in 2010-11.