Chelsea might have pushed Levi Colwill closer to Liverpool switch after £105m transfers

Chelsea might have pushed Levi Colwill closer to Liverpool switch after £105m transfers

Liverpool target Levi Colwill is set to hold talks with Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino about his future later this month

Liverpool are continuing to monitor Levi Colwill’s situation at Chelsea as the centre-back prepares for talks with Mauricio Pochettino.

Reports in London claim the Reds have made ‘multiple enquiries’ for the England Under-21s international, who has just won the European Championships with the young Lions. However, Chelsea aren’t interested in selling the 20-year-old, following his return from a season-long loan at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Yet the defender’s future remains uncertain, with his talks with his new manager when he reports for pre-season likely to determine what happens next.

Colwill made 22 appearances with the Seagulls last season, following on from making 32 appearances during a year-long temporary stint with Huddersfield Town in the Championship in 2021/22. Yet to make his Chelsea debut, the 20-year-old just wants to play.

Meanwhile, ahead of holding talks with the defender, Pochettino recently explained: “I need to get a feel for him. I need to hear what he has in his mind. What he expects. And then, of course, for him to listen to what I expect from him.”

Chelsea want Colwill to sign a new long-term contract at Stamford Bridge, while his current deal, which expires in 2025, does contain an option for the club to extend by a further year if he plays a certain amount of games?

But will he be given enough playing opportunities to both persuade him to stay and, at the very least, trigger that clause? By the sounds of it, the defender is not convinced, with his future remaining up in the air as a result.

While Chelsea are keen to retain his services now, their trigger-happy transfer activity over the past year has left him questioning his future at Stamford Bridge.

Following his loan to Huddersfield in 2021/22, the centre-back returned to Chelsea hungry to impress in pre-season last summer. Yet, the Athletic report that he was left feeling like he was just there to make up numbers, with manager Thomas Tuchel barely speaking to him as he felt increasingly unwanted.

Chelsea were in talks to sign Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig last summer, only for the deal to collapse as the Bundesliga side kept raising the asking-price. Instead, they would snap up Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli in a £33m deal, with both pursuits ultimately sending a message to Colwill.

When the Londoners signed full-back Marc Cucurella, who can also play centre-back in a back three, from Brighton for £56m in August 2022, the Athletic reports they were fortunate not to lose an unhappy Colwill permanently as part of the deal. Instead, he would only leave on loan, with the Seagulls, who have had bids rejected, now rivalling Liverpool if the 20-year-old does become available for transfer.

After waving off the centre-back to the South coast, they then signed Wesley Fofana from Leicester City in a £70m deal, before landing Benoit Badiashile from Monaco for £35m in January. If you want to convince a highly-rated youngster that he has a future at your club, also spending £192m on four players who will play the same position is probably not the way to go.

Admittedly, Koulibaly would ultimately last just one season at Stamford Bridge. Sold to Al-Hilal for roughly £20m last month, reports claim Chelsea’s willingness to offload the well-paid Senegalese was, in part, to offer more guarantees to Colwill.

With club captain Cesar Axpilicueta also leaving for Atletico Madrid on a free transfer, Chelsea are certainly starting to free up room in defence. The only problem for the Liverpool target is Pochettino still boasts Fofana, Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Trevor Chalobah, and Malang Sarr as senior centre-backs in his first team squad.

Meanwhile, both Reece James and Cucurella remain options in a back three, though Pochettino ultimately favours a traditional back four. Regardless of system, competition for places at centre-back at Stamford Bridge is steep.

And while Thiago Silva is 38 years old, Fofana and Badiashile are both 22 years old, with Chalobah and Sarr aged 24. Chelsea have already bought a £105m centre-back pairing for the future, which Colwill will have to break up to get the opportunities he desires.

Having not qualified for Europe this season, rotational opportunities will be limited too. Is waiting in the wings in hope of increased scraps, waiting for the soon-to-be 39-year-old Thiago Silva to move on or retire, really a prospect that will appeal to the young centre-back?

In contrast, were he to join Liverpool, he’d get certain starting opportunities in the Europa League and both domestic cups, as well as offering a rotational option to Andy Robertson in the hybrid left-back/left-centre-back role. He’d also be groomed as the long-term replacement to Virgil van Dijk.

Having already lost Mason Mount to Manchester United following on from a year of making the midfielder feel unwanted, Chelsea will hope that Pochettino is better-placed to stop fellow academy graduate Colwill from feeling the same and following in the England international’s footsteps.