Levi Colwill has offered his verdict on his future after Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi sent a second transfer plea to Chelsea. The Blues loanee has enjoyed a scintillating loan spell on the south coast where he has significantly impressed which has resulted in De Zerbi making his thoughts about the defender abundantly clear.
Ahead of the Seagulls' clash against Manchester City, the Italian said: "I hope he can play with us also next year but it’s his decision and the decision of Chelsea. I don’t know. We have to be ready to change some players but of course Levi is a top player for us."
The 43-year-old's latest verdict was him doubling down on an earlier claim on his love for working with Colwill. "I would like to work with him for another two, three, four years," the Brighton boss said before the clash with Arsenal.
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"It’s difficult to find a another centre-back, 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."
Unfortunately for De Zerbi that looks unlikely to happen as football.london understands that the Blues have been very impressed with Colwill's progress and he's expected to be a key player under Mauricio Pochettino.
Colwill returned to the Brighton team over the weekend to face Southampton and assisted Pascal Gross' strike which made it 3-1 to the Seagulls. His passing range and intent to get forward was also on show against Manchester City on Wednesday evening as it was his through ball that set up Julio Enciso to score a wonder goal.
However, as a defender, his ability to read the game and prevent danger is more important and he successfully did that against none other than Erling Haaland. The Norway international, who has hit 52 goals this season, thought he'd won it for City late on but VAR deemed that he had fouled Colwill to get the opportunity at goal.
The point secured by Brighton saw them qualify for the Europa League next season and after the game, Colwill delivered his thoughts surrounding his immediate future, which included a telling Chelsea claim.
“Brighton have done a lot for me,” Colwill told The Athletic. “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. I’m still here until the end of the season. I just focus on that, then I’ve got the [Under-21] Euros in the summer. After that, we’ll see what happens and go from there.
"Who knows, we’ll see what happens in the summer. I love the Brighton fans, I love everything about them (the club). I’ll take that into consideration.”
According to The Athletic's Andy Naylor halfway through an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Colwill had to be reminded that he is, in fact, a Chelsea player— “I forgot for a minute," he quipped back.
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