Chelsea handed clear £75m transfer boost as furious Enzo Maresca rant speaks volumes

Levi Colwill played the full 90 minutes for Chelsea in their 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday afternoon in an enormous boost for the out-of-form Blues

Finding a consistent centre-back partnership has been a problem for Chelsea over the last few seasons.

Since BlueCo bought the club from Roman Abramovich in late-May 2022, almost four years ago, the ownership group have signed six central defenders for a combined transfer fee of £193.5million (after add-ons), yet the nucleus of their defence is someone who did not cost them a penny.

Levi Colwill, a Cobham graduate, returned to action last week, playing 45 minutes in the defeat to Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge. Just five days later, the 23-year-old completed 90 minutes as Chelsea held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw at Anfield – with Colwill earning our Man of the Match.

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Colwill is part of the best centre-back partnership (from what we’ve seen) at the club. He and Wesley Fofana, who cost the Blues a total of £75m from Leicester City in the summer of 2022, started to form a really strong centre-back pairing last season, playing the majority of the first 13 league games of the campaign alongside each other at the heart of defence.

However, Fofana missed the next three months with an injury, causing a disruption to Enzo Maresca’s back line. Saturday afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool was the first time Chelsea fans witnessed Fofana and Colwill alongside each other in, staggeringly, well over a year.

It was no coincidence Fofana instantly looked better with Colwill to his left. The Frenchman has been in fire form, as have a lot of the Chelsea defence in fairness, but with the Englishman there to support him, we saw the former Leicester defender return to somewhere near his best.

There have been question marks over Fofana’s future at Stamford Bridge with the summer transfer window on the horizon. Such poor performances this season, especially since Christmas, have cast doubt over where he will be playing his football next term, especially with a top-level centre-back on the club’s wishlist in the summer. Alongside Colwill, though, he almost looks a different player.

The 25-year-old has three years remaining on his contract in west London, meaning it could be a critical summer. Do Chelsea allow Fofana to enter the final two years of his deal, or will the Blues look to cash in if they can sign someone better to partner Colwill?

Sources have told football.london that Colwill remains integral to Chelsea’s long-term plans and any defender signed this summer will be to complement the England international. Colwill is so critical to Chelsea that former head coach Maresca was left livid last summer when the club failed to sign a replacement after the defender suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that would eventually keep him out for the majority of the season.

Speaking on August 15 of last year, Maresca ranted: “The club know exactly what I think. I think we need a central defender. We are looking for an internal solution but as I said, the club know exactly what I think.”

Chelsea tried to sign Dean Huijsen last summer but the Spain international instead chose to move to boyhood club Real Madrid. The club’s transfer team scoured the market intensely, sources say, but could not find the right centre-back to replace Colwill. Chelsea were reluctant to sign just anyone and wanted the right profile; hence their decision to source an internal replacement instead.

Either way, it left Maresca furious. And that was – in many ways – the start of the end when it came to the Italian’s relationship with the club’s board. It just puts some perspective on Colwill’s significance at Stamford Bridge.