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Daniel Childs

Thomas Tuchel can repeat Chelsea's Ben Chilwell boost after Tomori and Guehi transfer regret

"I think he's been sensational, from day one really."

This assessment of an outside view lauding a Chelsea academy talent flourishing on loan is nothing new to the ears of Chelsea supporters.

Levi Colwill is following a recent trend of defenders from the academy moving to the second tier and quickly becoming recognised as the division's best, despite only recently taking their first steps into senior football.

Fikayo Tomori had two loans at Brighton and Hull where he gained valuable experience before joining Chelsea legend Frank Lampard and Cobham peer Mason Mount at Pride Park in 2018.

Then Marc Guehi did similar at Swansea in two loans between 2020 and 2021 in which he became widely regarded as the Championship's best young centre-back, making the play-off final before returning.

Guehi and Tomori sadly departed last summer, both players deciding their future's lie better away from Stamford Bridge.

When speaking to Yorkshire Live's Huddersfield Town writer Steven Chicken on the Carefree Chelsea 'Talking Transfers' show, it became clear that the same cannot happen with Colwill.

"Obviously he's not been perfect, there's been little things in his game that he needs to work out, that he's said himself." Chicken detailed when assessing his loan so far.

"The difference he makes to the side is incredible. I've got the numbers here, when Levi Colwill is on the pitch they only concede a goal once every 99 minutes. The 20 games he's started they've conceded 18 goals, the eight games he's not started they've conceded 15".

Huddersfield has proved a great breeding ground for young English players over recent years.

With Ben Chilwell having a short loan between November 2015 and January 2016 with The Terriers before returning to Leicester and then developing into the left-back Chelsea would spend £50m on in 2020

Tino Anjorin joined Colwill for the rest of this season on loan after his move was confirmed on deadline day. This after past Cobham graduates Kasey Palmer, Izzy Brown and Trevoh Chalobah had spells in West Yorkshire.

Even if a rival has benefited, Arsenal's Emile Smith-Rowe also thrived at The John Smith's Stadium in the second half of the 2019/20 season.

I pondered why Huddersfield had become such a brilliant environment for young Premier League stars to attain the development required.

"That's something they've very consciously prioritised. They've got a different academy structure to most sides.

"It was quite controversial at the time understandably, but they got rid of everything from under 16 down and were like "right, we're gonna concentrate on getting the best youngsters into our academy that slipped the net elsewhere". Looking for your sort of Jamie Vardy's.

"The whole thing ties into a policy of wanting to get a reputation for being a place where young players will get given chances."

It reflects how many admirers Colwill has got that Chelsea were reportedly evading permanent interest from Leicester in the January window as Premier League interest grows.

Looking at how Tuchel could integrate Colwill in the future, he found a brilliant internal solution to Chelsea's struggle to recruit Jules Kounde last summer in promoting Trevoh Chalobah, one of the German's best performers in this campaign.

As we approach the end of Colwill's loan, which could end in an extraordinary promotion push, the fear of another Guehi or Tomori situation repeating will be lingering around Chelsea minds.

The high praise for a left-sided defender like Colwill cannot be ignored, he looks set for a brilliant career.

Make sure you have subscribed to CareFreeChelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Daniel Childs from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work. If you enjoyed reading this then give my other articles a read below.

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