Supply and demand. Definitely not worth it, but that's the scarcity of the current fullback market and Cucu, a young player with upside, proved himself last season at Brighton.
To be fair to the old board, they got it wrong but they tried something with Miranda who they believed had the higher upside. Prioritized him over Cucu and tried to loan him to BuLi then Betis. Didn't work out (wrong BuLi team) but there was a method.
Didn't help that we had a highly paid fairweather coach at the time in Valverde, who went with the flow and had no backbone. Maybe if we had a Xavi (not forgetting the strength of the squad at that point was in the players hands and not the coaching staffs) then he would have stood up for someone like Cucu and given him chances.
To be fair to the old board, they got it wrong but they tried something with Miranda who they believed had the higher upside. Prioritized him over Cucu and tried to loan him to BuLi then Betis. Didn't work out (wrong BuLi team) but there was a method.
Didn't help that we had a highly paid fairweather coach at the time in Valverde, who went with the flow and had no backbone. Maybe if we had a Xavi (not forgetting the strength of the squad at that point was in the players hands and not the coaching staffs) then he would have stood up for someone like Cucu and given him chances.