After a brilliant season with Brighton, Chelsea are keen to tie Colwill down to a new contract, but the defender wants first-team football
Levi Colwill doesn’t want to “discuss anything now” regarding a new contract with Chelsea, despite the Blues being in “control”, claims transfer expert Fabrizio Romano.
Chelsea transfer news – What’s the latest on Levi Colwill?
It was a season of contrasting fortunes for Colwill’s home and loan club last season, with the former languishing down in 12th and seeing four different managers take the helm, whereas Brighton & Hove Albion thrived – despite losing their manager to Chelsea – qualifying for the Europa League.
It was the youth international’s first taste of regular Premier League football after spending the 2021/22 season on loan in the Championship with Huddersfield Town.
With the loan being an unmitigated success, and in a bid not to lose the player, Brighton made a formal offer of £30m to Chelsea earlier this month, which the Pensioners firmly rejected.
However, that rejected offer has yet to totally resolve the situation, as the player has since refused to begin negotiations on a new deal, citing the desire to regularly play first-team football as his most important factor, per transfers expert Fabrizio Romano.
Romano explained the situation on his YouTube Channel, saying:
“Chelsea offered Levi Colwill a new contract, it was a verbal conversation with his agent, but from Levi Colwill’s side, it was kind of ‘wait, we don’t want to discuss anything now’, so Levi is not in negotiations with Chelsea now.
“It is not about the salary it’s more about the project. Levi Colwill doesn’t want to be a backup player, he wants to be an important player. He wants to have kind of guaranteed game time, he wants to feel important, otherwise he would be prepared to move, but the reality is also that Chelsea have no intention to negotiate. He still has a long contract at Chelsea, not super long, but long enough to allow Chelsea to control the situation, and they insist in saying that they want Levi Colwill as part of the project.”
How good was Levi Colwill for Brighton & Hove Albion last season?
It’s no real surprise that the Seagulls want to keep the 20-year-old at the Amex for next season, as he was brilliant for Roberto De Zerbi’s side for much of the year.
According to WhoScored, the young centre-half – hailed as “special” by some in the media – averaged a respectable 6.54 across his 17 Premier League games for the Seagulls, initially struggling for minutes before firmly establishing himself in the team.
His underlying numbers are brilliant as well, with FBref, who compare players in a similar position across Europe’s top five leagues, ranking him in the top 1% of players for assists and attempted passes, the top 5% for non-penalty xG and aerial duals won, the top 7% for shot-creating actions, the top 8% for progressive passes and the top12% for progressive carries, all per 90.
With those numbers, it’s clear to see that he is the perfect fit for De Zerbi’s progressive style of football, and his manager seems to be well aware of that stating, “I know the quality of Levi Colwill.”
Unfortunately for the Italian manager, Chelsea also sees very aware of the Southampton-born gem’s quality, and it looks increasingly unlikely that he’ll be playing anywhere other than west London next season.
