Chelsea have agreed a new long-term deal with promising home-grown defender Levi Colwill, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano on Twitter.
According to Romano, Colwill has signed a new six-year deal with the Blues until 2029. While he had attracted attention from club across Europe who were vying for his signature, Chelsea stood firm – now, he is set to remain with the club for a significant period of time.
In Romano’s tweet, he wrote: “Agreement in place between Chelsea and Levi Colwill’s camp over new long term deal after final round of talks in the evening — it will be valid until June 2029. Chelsea always called Colwill not for sale and untouchable — he’s now set to stay on fresh long term deal.”
In a following tweet, he penned: “Team work made difference at Chelsea to reach an agreement over new deal with Colwill. Winstanley & Stewart, working on that for months insisting on ‘not for sale’ stance. Pochettino, crucial — spoke to Colwill since day 1 as top CB part of project for present and future.”
Could Levi Colwill be a first-team player for Chelsea next season?
Next season, Chelsea’s centre-halves will be as follows – Benoit Badishile, Trevoh Chalobah, Malang Sarr and Thiago Silva. There is also Wesley Fofana, but he is set to be ruled out for a significant period due to injury.
As such, it is difficult to see Colwill failing to break into the first team next season – while he will face competition for places, it seems unlikely that he will not have a role to play in the 2023/24 campaign.
What will Colwill add to the Chelsea squad?
Colwill is more than just a high-quality defender – he is also supremely technically gifted, which allows him to bring the ball out of defence with regularity.
Chelsea do not have a defender who is as gifted on the ball as Colwill is. They are not short of ball-playing defenders – Benoit Badishile is a good example of this – but in the modern game, defenders who can pass the ball around are like gold dust. Not only because of their rarity – but also because of their importance.