Chelsea have been here before: Marc Guehi was sent out on loan and was sold before being given a chance in the first team. That was a mistake, but this could be a far bigger one. It’s simple: don’t let Levi Colwill leave for anything less than a Dr. Evil amount of money.
Fikayo Tomori, Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Kalidou Koulibaly join Marc Guehi as arguable centre-back botch-jobs at Chelsea in recent years, while the jury is very much out on £72m man Wesley Fofana, who looked like a minutes-old giraffe for much of his first season at Stamford Bridge.
Rudiger had the air of a predator ready to rip a gangly calf to pieces in his battle with Erling Haaland; fellow free transfer Christensen glided around the Nou Camp on his way to a La Liga title; Tomori helped AC Milan to a Champions League semi-final; Guehi became an England international and £60m player. The less said about Koulibaly the better.
There are justifications for those poor decisions. Koulibaly looked bloody good in Serie A. Christensen didn’t look that good in the Premier League. Rudiger was 29 and wanted to leave. Tomori was given a chance and was sold for £28m. They got £22m for Guehi who had never played a game of Premier League football. There’s some faulty logic and a lack of foresight, but you can see why Chelsea did those Chelsea things.
But under no reasonable circumstance should Levi Colwill be allowed to leave Chelsea for Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp wants him. He looks like the new Virgil van Dijk, to the extent where we could question whether the Chelsea academy have been scouring Merseyside for mosquitoes trapped in tree sap to grow Premier League All-Stars in subterranean labs. It’s no wonder Liverpool are ‘ready to make an offer’, and a report claims they’re ‘confident’ of landing him.
Since Brighton made their bids to make Colwill’s loan move permanent, Chelsea have consistently insisted that they deem him non-transferable, and the 20-year-old has made one thing clear whenever asked about his future: “I’ve got to play.”
Colwill’s got Euro 2024 in mind and Gareth Southgate has reportedly made it clear that the left centre-back spot customarily occupied by Harry Maguire is there for the taking. Colwill will need to be playing to prove his worth to the England manager but is now at a level which means any team able to afford him will be one of Chelsea’s direct rivals for honours, who already have very good centre-backs.
It could be a straight shootout between man-management titans Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp. A battle to see who can spin the greatest yarn of consistent game time that surely neither can actually guarantee. Colwill is actually more likely to see minutes in the short term at Chelsea as he grapples for the left centre-back spot with Benoit Badiashile, and there’s no reason why he wouldn’t win that particular war.
But while the path to the first team at Liverpool may be blocked by Van Dijk, his succession plan will be discussed in negotiations with Klopp and Jorg Schmadtke, with that gold-paved road soon to be clear.
There’s little doubt Colwill is destined for the very top and there are few better managers in world football to guide him to that peak than Pochettino. Klopp is also from that exclusive club but Liverpool’s interest really should be academic.
Colwill is under contract at Chelsea until 2025 – he can’t leave unless Chelsea sell him. So quite simply, don’t sell him. If Liverpool come knocking Chelsea should either send them packing or come up with an extraordinary price and reveal it while touching the pinkie of one hand to their lips and stroking a white cat with the other.
‘Record price’ you say Liverpool? You’re damn f***ing right.