Chelsea reject £30m Levi Colwill bid from Brighton

Chelsea have rejected a £30million ($37.3m) bid for Levi Colwill from Brighton & Hove Albion.

Colwill, 20, spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Brighton and impressed for the south-coast side.

There is a concern that Colwill would not be assured regular game time at Chelsea next season, with January signing Benoit Badiashile also a left-footed centre-back. Though Badiashile sustained an injury at the end of the campaign, the summer break will give the 22-year-old time to recover ahead of the new season.

Chelsea, though, do want to keep Colwill but his contract only runs until 2025 which is significant if he will not sign an extension. The west London club have already been backed into unfavourable positions this summer with players such as Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic entering the transfer window with only a year left on their deals.

There is a one-year extension option on Colwill’s contract but that will only be triggered if he plays a certain number of games.

Chelsea are also keen on signing midfielders Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister but will need to sell players in order to recruit this summer in order to comply with financial fair play regulations and reduce the size of incoming head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, which is in excess of 30 players.

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Colwill initially struggled to break into the Brighton team, making just two substitute appearances in their opening 13 Premier League matches.

But from mid-November onwards, Colwill established himself as a crucial part of Roberto De Zerbi’s team and was rarely out of the side, save for a five-game absence due to injury in January and February.

Speaking exclusively to The Athletic last week, just before his final game for Brighton against Aston Villa, Colwill said on his future: “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.

“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.”

Brighton will play European football next season after finishing sixth and qualifying for the Europa League group stage.

Chelsea, meanwhile, will spend the season out of Europe for only the second time this century after slumping to a 12th-placed finish.

Additional reporting: Daniel Sheldon

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(Photo: Getty Images)