With the Premier League and UK Government having now approved the sale of Chelsea to the consortium led by Todd Boehly, the transfer rumour mill has fired up once again. As the Blues lose a trio of defensive options in Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azplicueta, the need to bolster the back-line looks to be priority number one.
Jules Kounde has been reportedly pictured in the capital ahead of his move from Sevilla, potentially signalling an end to a season-long fiasco that saw the Frenchman remain with Julen Lopetegui's side despite the fierce interest from Chelsea. Another name that has been speculated with a switch to west London is RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol. The Croatian has established himself as a mainstay in Zlatko Dalić's 23-man squad and has continued to impress for the German side.
Despite only sneaking into the Champions League places and missing out on Europa League success having been knocked by Rangers in the semi-finals, they did manage a piece of silverware after beating Freiburg on penalties to win the DFB Pokal.
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However, for Thomas Tuchel, there are growing calls for more prospects to be promoted to the first team following the success of the likes of Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Reece James and Trevoh Chabolah to name a few, with Conor Gallagher staking his claim for a role in the squad after his successful stint with Crystal Palace.
Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi and Tammy Abraham have all been allowed to leave west London and have gone on to enjoy their new ventures. Given the season that Levi Colwill has had with Huddersfield that has seen them reach Sunday's Championship play-off final against Nottingham Forest, in addition to his recent long-term extension, there is food for thought for the German tactician to include the 19-year-old in his plans for next season following the successful integration of Cobham academy graduates in the past.
"Colwill has had an absolutely brilliant season, a little bit disrupted by injury in the second half of it, still an absolutely brilliant season on loan at Huddersfield," Chief Chelsea writer Adam Newson said on the football.london podcast. "I've watched Colwill for a long time, watched him for the development squad when he was at Chelsea and the U18s, there is so much you want from a modern defender in Levi Colwill.
"He's still only 19, of course there is development to come with areas of his game he can improve, but if you did want a prototype modern-day centre-back, he ticks a lot of your boxes. The Gvardiol stuff is interesting because there's only a year difference in age, both centre-backs, left-footed, can play on the left of a back-three and in the centre. I don't know personally if I will be pushing big money towards that if you're Chelsea, especially with a Levi Colwill.
"I think we've seen with the likes of Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi over the last 12 months, there's a lot of guys coming out of the Chelsea academy who are not willing to get stuck in the loan cycle anymore. Marc Guehi went out on loan to Swansea, had a brilliant season, came back and felt confident enough in himself to say 'I don't want to go out on loan, if you're not ready to put your faith in me, I'll find a club that is.'
"He went to Crystal Palace and won their Players' Player of the Season. If you're a Chelsea fan now you should be wondering what Chelsea could've done to stop that situation."
