Manchester City and Liverpool are ready to raid Chelsea for defender Levi Colwill, as clubs queue up to take advantage of financial threats by poaching homegrown stars from Stamford Bridge.
Premier League rivals are lining up moves for Chelsea academy talent amid a feeling that the Blues will be forced into a fire sale of young players to meet Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
Both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp want to refresh their back lines this summer and have identified left-footed Colwill as a top target. City and Liverpool are ready to go head to head to sign the 20-year-old, who is viewed as a future England star.
Colwill has impressed on loan at Brighton this season and is being tipped for an international call-up ahead of Euro 2024 next summer. Chelsea do not want to lose Colwill and are set to enter contract talks with the Cobham graduate to ward off interest from City, having just tied down Ben Chilwell to a new deal.
But there is a feeling that Chelsea could have to cash in on homegrown stars to avoid breaching FFP rules after splashing out more than £600million in the past two transfer windows, and rival clubs sense an opportunity.
While Chelsea insist they continue to comply with FFP regulations, they are being monitored closely by UEFA over possible breaches. Failure to qualify for the Champions League next season would see Chelsea will miss out on £90m-plus of TV money and they will need player sales to boost income.
Selling some homegrown stars would be pure profit under the new version of UEFA's financial sustainability rules, and offloading Colwill, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Conor Gallagher and Ruben Loftus-Cheek could generate close to £200m.
Colwill only has two years left on his Chelsea contract and co-owner Todd Boehly has made it clear that he does not want players running down their deals. Boehly is prepared to sell players to ensure that does not happen, so Colwill’s future could hang on whether he agrees a contract renewal.
Brighton are also set to join the race to sign Colwill on a permanent basis if he becomes available this summer, and hope to be able to offer him European football.
Colwill is in similar situation to Mount, who could be sold to Liverpool if he does not agree a new contract. Manchester United are also interested in the England midfielder.
Liverpool need to boost their homegrown quota and, along with Newcastle, are also interested in Gallagher. City, meanwhile, have also identified Mateo Kovacic as a potential target to replace Bernardo Silva or Ilkay Gundogan.
Guardiola is prepared to sanction an exit for Aymeric Laporte this summer and City are ready to move to prise Colwill away from Chelsea. Colwill joined Brighton on loan as a makeweight in the £62m deal that took Marc Cucurella to Stamford Bridge last summer.
The England Under-21 international has made 15 appearances for Brighton this season and started their controversial 2-1 defeat by Tottenham last weekend.
He had an impressive loan spell in the Championship last season when he wore the No26 shirt at Huddersfield, which led to Chelsea fans calling him “the next John Terry”. Chelsea face Brighton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday but Colwill is ineligible to face his parent club.
