Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino will have conversations with Levi Colwill before deciding on the future of the defender ahead of this season.
Colwill, 20, will be given extra time off after he played for Engand under-21s in their dramatic 1-0 European Championship final win over Spain last weekend, their first victory in the competition since 1984. Colwill, 20, was a key part of a side that didn’t concede a goal in any of their six games at the tournament.
Colwill spent last season on loan at Brighton, where he made 22 appearances in all competitions.
“He is a Chelsea player and in the last few months at Brighton he was playing really well,” Pochettino said on Chelsea’s website. “He is one of our players and I need to talk with him when he arrives next week.
“I need to get a feel for him. I need to hear what he has in his mind, what he expects. And then, of course, for him to listen to what I expect from him.”
Pochettino’s Argentinian compatriot, Enzo Fernandez, also has extra time off this summer.
Fernandez, 22, who won the World Cup with Argentina last year, joined the Blues for a British record £106.8million in January.
“It’s been important now to rest a little bit because he was a year-and-a-half playing, playing, playing because of the circumstances,” Pochettino said. “He arrived from Argentina to Portugal, from Portugal to the World Cup, and from the World Cup to England. He never stopped.
“He’s young and energetic but the young also need to rest, clean the mind. Also, he arrived at Chelsea not in the best circumstances. It’s difficult.
“He is still young and still needs to learn about the Premier League, it’s a really, really tough competition. He changed everything – the culture, the language – and it’s not always easy to adapt.
“But I think now he knows what it is to be a Chelsea player, knows London, and is communicating better. We are going to help in all these aspects for him to grow and provide the team with his best.”
Mykhailo Mudryk was also at the European Championships, reaching the semi-finals with Ukraine before a 5-1 defeat to Spain.
Pochettino added: “It is to understand the circumstances how he also arrived. I think it’s not the same mindset and everything is different in the life of Mudryk than Enzo. That is why for us it is really important to spend time to talk.
“We were talking with Mudryk, I’m going to meet him before he comes to start pre-season, because he was in the Under-21 Euros and will join us when we fly to America. I really like to see and to know him to try to decide with the staff the best strategy to help him to be at the level that I think Chelsea when they signed him expected him to be.”
Meanwhile, Pochettino is looking forward to moving on from the problems of last season as he prepares his new side for the start of the Premier League campaign in a month.
“After the last season, now is a new start, a fresh start, and I think they need to show their real quality,” Pochettino said. “But we need to create this platform for them to feel comfortable and breathing space for them to perform and improve. We are really focused on that.
“I think it is also one of the challenges to help this type of player, the players who arrived in very difficult circumstances to join this football club and I think it is a nice challenge for us, because we love to work in this way, but of course we need to give them the opportunity to show they are able to cope with the pressure of playing with Chelsea and performing their best.”
