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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Kieran King

Mauricio Pochettino plans showdown talks with Chelsea star he wants to build team around

Levi Colwill will hold talks with new Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino over his future when the Argentine starts work on Monday.

Colwill, 20, spent last season on loan at Brighton and impressed for the Seagulls as they qualified for the Europa League for the first time. Roberto De Zerbi's men finished sixth in the Premier League - above the likes of Aston Villa, Tottenham and Chelsea - with Colwill making 17 top-flight appearances in the process.

Brighton are desperate to re-sign Colwill on a permanent basis and saw a £30million bid almost immediately rejected by Chelsea earlier in the window. The Seagulls could come back for the highly-rated defender, but it is understood Pochettino wants to keep hold of the England Under-21 international and build the team around Colwill and four others.

Colwill wants to speak to Pochettino before making a decision on his long-term future however, with a contract offer still on the table, having gone unsigned since February. Colwill is keen to find out how he figures in Pochettino's plans ahead of the new season.

Pochettino has a wealth of options to chose from at centre-back, despite selling Kalidou Koulibaly to Al-Hilal.

Thiago Silva, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile and Trevor Chalobah all remain at the Blues, and Colwill doesn't want to return to be fifth choice, particularly with no European football next term.

He also has several other Premier League clubs tracking his progress. Liverpool and Manchester City are keeping tabs on Colwill, who has two years' left to run on his contract at Stamford Bridge, although a one-year extension will be automatically activated should he make 15 league appearances for Chelsea.

Levi Colwill impressed for Brighton last season (Getty Images)

Colwill is currently with England U21s out in Georgia and Romania at the European Championships and he may not return to club training until the end of July, depending on the Young Lions' progress.

The Chelsea squad will travel to the USA for a pre-season tour on July 17, before playing a host of friendlies out in the United States where he will hope to get an opportunity to impress.

Chelsea have already sold a number of stars this summer as they bid to balance the books. N'Golo Kante, Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kai Havertz have all been sold already, with Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang set to follow out of the exit door.

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