{"id":21819,"date":"2026-07-27T09:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21819"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:08:11","slug":"levi-colwill-sets-big-chelsea-target-as-xabi-alonso-splashes-the-cash-on-new-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21819","title":{"rendered":"Levi Colwill sets big Chelsea target as Xabi Alonso splashes the cash on new defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_9f853e\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Levi Colwill has been speaking about the new season, Chelsea&#8217;s expectations, targets and working under the &#8220;amazing&#8221; Xabi Alonso over the last few weeks<\/h2>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"34355957\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34355957.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/1_GettyImages-2287181496.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34355957.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/1_GettyImages-2287181496.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34355957.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/1_GettyImages-2287181496.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34355957.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/1_GettyImages-2287181496.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 27: Levi Colwill of Chelsea FC speaks to the media during the Chelsea FC Press Conference on July 27, 2026 in Sydney, Australia.  (Photo by Ayush Kumar\/Eurasia Sport Images\/Getty Images)\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA &#8211; JULY 27: Levi Colwill of Chelsea FC speaks to the media during the Chelsea FC Press Conference on July 27, 2026 in Sydney, Australia.  (Photo by Ayush Kumar\/Eurasia Sport Images\/Getty Images)<cite aria-label=\"Image: Ayush Kumar\/Eurasia Sport Images\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Ayush Kumar\/Eurasia Sport Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Levi Colwill has his eyes set on becoming one of the Premier League&#8217;s best central defenders after being helpless in Chelsea&#8217;s collapse last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The 23-year-old missed the vast majority of the 2025\/26 campaign after suffering a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in the opening training session of last summer&#8217;s pre-season. The Chelsea academy graduate made his long-awaited return to competitive action in early-May and added another three appearances before the campaign concluded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">While Colwill was out, the Blues lost seven out of eight matches and that led to Liam Rosenior &#8211; someone the defender never played under &#8211; being dismissed from his head coach role in April. Colwill reflected on how difficult his nine-month layoff was and how it hurt seeing Chelsea go through a terrible run of form.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE! <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It was the first day back of pre-season last year,&#8221; recalled Colwill. &#8220;It was really tough to get my head around, but I&#8217;m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason, so I just tried to take it in my stride.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Seeing the boys on the pitch every day obviously hurt a lot, but I got over it and I&#8217;m back now. I feel like I&#8217;m a stronger person mentally and physically and I feel like I&#8217;m a better person for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Colwill is a positive character and is looking forward. The England defender is working hard under new manager Xabi Alonso in Chelsea&#8217;s Australian pre-season camp to get in peak condition ahead of the new campaign. Then, the next step is becoming one of the Premier League&#8217;s best in the centre of defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I know my targets in my head,&#8221; said Colwill. &#8220;I want to take my game to the next level this year. I want to be regarded as one of the best centre-backs in the league this year, 100%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I think, from the last three games I played last season, the quality I showed proves that I can be, but I&#8217;ve just got to be consistent and show it throughout the season. Hopefully I can help my team and lead them on to good things this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section aria-busy=\"true\" aria-label=\"Loading poll\" class=\"Poll_poll-container__66GSR\"\/><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Levi Colwill has been speaking about the new season, Chelsea&#8217;s expectations, targets and working under&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}