Speaking as a Chelsea fan, you never know which of the club’s loans will be the ones that make a difference each year. You can never quite predict which are going to be hit and which will be a miss. Sometimes the most talented players aim too high and end up at a club where they don’t play, or sometimes good players are put with bad teammates who don’t allow them to shine.
At least once a year we totally nail one however, and that’s the case with Levi Colwill this year.
The central defender went to Brighton and spent some time breaking into the first team, but once he was in Roberto de Zerbi’s plans, everything got better and better. Now, at the end of a superb season for Levi and his team, he’s rightfully being considered among the very best in the world in his position.
His year on the South Coast has been such a success that in an interview with the Athletic released today the defender had to be reminded he was actually a Chelsea player.
“I forgot for a minute,” Colwill laughed,
The piece points out that there are just years left on his deal, and that Chelsea can’t guarantee him first team minutes or European football. Further comments in the interview hinted he would love to stay at Brighton and continue developing, as well as playing in the Europa League.
“Brighton have done a lot for me. They put their trust in me when others didn’t and I’m a person that loves to repay that. We’ll see,” the defender said.
“I don’t know what is going to happen [at Chelsea]. I’m still here until the end of the season. I just focus on that, then I’ve got the Euros [the Under-21 European Championship with England] in the summer.
“After that, we’ll see what happens and go from there.”
More than ever, it sounds like a loan that has gone almost too well, from Chelsea’s point of view.
