Huddersfield Town can attest that Chelsea risk making familiar transfer error with Levi Colwill

The great philosopher Carlos Corberan once set out the memorable maxim: “The future does not exist”. But even the wisest observations are open to disastrous misinterpretation, and it looks like Chelsea may have taken that message so close to heart that it has plunged them into outright nihilism.

You can understand why new owner Todd Boehly would be keen to prioritise immediate success. Their Champions League victory in 2021 was a huge triumph, but Chelsea’s lofty standards do not allow for them to go much longer without a Premier League trophy. Their current run of five seasons finishing no higher than third is already their longest title drought since the now-departed Roman Abramovich took over in 2003.

With the right manager already in situ, that necessarily means a squad revamp in hopes of closing the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool, and that in turns means there will need to be departures. Still…is there any reason why Levi Colwill ought to be one of them?

We readily admit our bias in Colwill’s favour here, of course, and perhaps there is a bit of ‘yes, that mediocre player at your club SHOULD be playing for England’ at play. Familiarity can sometimes breed affection as readily as it does contempt. But we’re not alone in thinking the centre-back could emerge as the national team’s long-term answer at centre-back before very long, let alone what he is capable of at club level.

It’s not surprising, then, to see Colwill attracting interest from elsewhere in the Premier League. Even at 19, he is clearly ready to spend his second season in senior football playing regular top-flight football. But it’s strange that the notion of a permanent move this summer is not being laughed out of the newspaper before it even hits