Levi Colwill looks set to be a crucial part of Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea for the 2023/24 season. The young defender spent the last campaign on loan at Brighton and now looks set to be integrated into the Blues' first team following a wonderful spell on the south coast.
Due to his performances, the Seagulls have tried to sign Colwill permanently, but both of their bids, with the latter a club-record £40million, have been turned down. Chelsea have no intention of letting him leave for any price and contract extension talks are expected to take place in the coming weeks.
The mass squad clear out plans left many at risk of being made available to leave the club, but Colwill can certainly be included in the bracket of Reece James, Ben Chilwell and most of the new signings as not being for sale.
Instead, he could be the recipient of a huge new bumper deal and Pochettino could grant him a further reason to stay by making a £25million decision. Kalidou Koulibaly, who only joined the club last summer, is heading for the exit door with Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal sending a first official bid said to be between €25-30million (£21.3-£25.6m) on Sunday, according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano.
Personal terms have also been agreed and with his expected departure it will mean one less player for Colwill to compete with for the left centre-back spot. Romano also added that Pochettino agreeing to sell Koulibaly could be a defining factor in Colwill's future and it could lean him more towards an extension.
Ahead of a potentially defining season, Colwill looked to be given a huge opportunity with the England national team. The 20-year-old was spotted as part of Gareth Southgate's senior training squad for the Euro qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia with the England boss explaining why he was with the group.
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"We wanted to have him with us for the week," he said last week. "We lost Lewis Dunk earlier in the week so we were a defender short. He will stay with us certainly until we get back to Manchester and we are able to assess where we are within this group and who is available for the next game.
"But the intention is that he is with the under-21s and we want to get him back into that because that’s an important tournament for his development as well. But he’s done really well, he’s settled in very, very well with the group. We know he’s a good player already, although he’s young. We’re impressed with his mentality, have been all season, and his mentality."
Colwill was subsequently left out of the squad to face Malta, despite travelling and was also not named on the bench to face North Macedonia.
