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Chelsea have reportedly rejected a stunning £30 million bid from Brighton & Hove Albion for defender Levi Colwill. The Blues are adamant that the defender is not for sale and they see him as a big part of their future.
As per a report in Sky Sports, Colwill is a subject of a £30 million from Brighton, who sold Marc Cucurella to Chelsea for £60 million last summer. The Seagulls are looking to keep the defender at the club after an impressive loan spell.
However, Mauricio Pocehttino is keen on working with the young Englishman and has blocked the move. Chelsea rejected the bid for Colwill on Friday and are not ready to entertain any offer for the youngster.
Colwill, however, is open to leaving Stamford Bridge this summer and has also heaped praise on Brighton. He said in an interview with The Athletic:
“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.”
Colwill played 22 matches for Brighton last season and was impressive throughout. He will now be returning to Chelsea ahead of the next season.
Brighton manager keen on keeping Chelsea star at the club
Roberto De Zerbi has been praising Levi Colwill all season and recently reiterated his desire to keep the defender at the club. He believes that it is difficult to find a centre-back with the youngster's qualities and said (via Sky Sports):
“I would like to work with him for another two, three, four years, because it’s difficult to find another left centre-back with his quality. He’s a good guy. I think he’s improving a lot this year. His improvement has been fantastic. I hope he can stay with us.”
Sky have added that Brighton were looking to sign Colwill last summer and Thomas Tuchel was open to the sale. However, the Blues owners decided to just loan out the defender for a season and not include him in the deal for Marc Cucurella.
