England head coach Gareth Southgate is giving serious consideration to handing Brighton & Hove Albion defender Levi Colwill a first senior call-up.
The highly rated 19-year-old, who moved on a season-long loan from Chelsea in August, started the campaign on the bench but has been an integral part of Roberto De Zerbi’s first team in recent weeks.
Advertisement
He has only made seven top-flight appearances but has played every minute of Brighton’s last five league matches, including Saturday’s 3-0 win over Liverpool — their first home league victory over the Merseysiders since 1961 and another notable scalp in a season that has already delivered triumphs over Manchester United and Chelsea.
That form has impressed England’s coaching staff as Southgate weighs up his options for the squad to take on Italy and Ukraine in Euro 2024 qualifiers in March.
Colwill’s timing could hardly be better. Southgate, who committed his future to England shortly after his side lost to France in the World Cup quarter-finals in December, could embark on a refresh of his squad, allowing younger players to force their way into his setup.
Colwill was not part of Southgate’s 55-man long list for the World Cup, but as a left-sided centre-back, he offers an option in a position where England are not well stocked. He has also progressed through the international pathway, representing his country at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels.
The Southampton-born defender impressed during a season-long loan at Huddersfield Town last season and there was some surprise that Chelsea were prepared to send him out again, with many fans feeling he could have been part of the club’s rebuilt defence this term.
GO DEEPER
Levi Colwill: 'It's not a bad thing to be called the new John Terry'
As this column reported last week, he is still very much part of Chelsea’s long-term plans, despite the recent arrival of 21-year-old defender Benoit Badiashile from Monaco, and Colwill is anticipated to challenge for a first-team spot next season.
England watch all eligible talent closely as they map out their future squads and Rico Lewis, the Manchester City right-back who has impressed in his senior outings this season, is another youngster who could come into Southgate’s thinking.
Lewis, 18, lacks England Under-21 experience and though that is not in itself a barrier to selection, fierce competition in his position means it is unclear if he will make the squad for the games in March.
49ers key to Leeds’ Rutter deal
It is a mark of the machinations in Leeds United’s boardroom that 49ers Enterprises, the club’s minority shareholder, was influential in pushing through their record signing of Georginio Rutter.
Rutter joined Leeds from Hoffenheim on Saturday night for a fee that broke their previous club record of £27million ($33m), which was paid for Rodrigo in 2020. The transfer could earn Hoffenheim a total of around £35million if all add-ons are met.
Discussions over the cost of Rutter were unexpectedly complex, running over several days last week. Hoffenheim held out for a high price but the proposed deal also led to discussions about how the move would be funded at Elland Road — and, at shareholder level, who would pick up the bill.
Leeds are majority owned by Andrea Radrizzani, their chairman since 2017, but 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers NFL franchise, controls more than 40 per cent of the club and has been targeting full ownership for some time.
An option to acquire Leeds from Radrizzani, as revealed by The Athletic, runs to January 2024 but 49ers Enterprises is increasingly minded to push through its takeover before that date. Talks about the proposed transition have been intense recently and figures involved in the deal expect a sale to go through by the summer at the latest.
Advertisement
The proactive role of 49ers Enterprises in supporting the bid for Rutter and agreeing to meet future payments for him is another firm indication of a change of ownership coming. Leeds, like most clubs, structure payments to run over a new signing’s contract — Rutter’s runs to 2028 — and it looks likely that the responsibility of meeting many of those instalments will fall to 49ers Enterprises.
Spurs’ £12m Trossard offer
Leandro Trossard’s future at Brighton increasingly looks as if it is ending after his public dispute with head coach De Zerbi last week, writes Andy Naylor.
Trossard’s agent, Josy Comhair, claimed his client was no longer on speaking terms with De Zerbi after an altercation with another Brighton player led to Trossard being effectively frozen out of first-team consideration.
Comhair called on Brighton to help facilitate a transfer for the Belgium international this month, but it is unclear exactly what his options could be.
Tottenham made a verbal offer of around £12million for Trossard which was rejected by Brighton, who value him far higher. That informal interest has not been followed up since.
De Zerbi did suggest after Brighton’s 3-0 win over Liverpool that the door remained open to Trossard to return to his squad if he accepted his way of working.
“I’m fine with myself and I’m ready to open the doors for him because he’s a good guy and a very important player for us,” he said.
“He changes the team, but he has to understand and work with my attitude, in my way, because I am the coach. I decide the rules inside the dressing room.”
Hudson-Odoi facing summer D-day
Callum Hudson-Odoi will make a decision on his Chelsea future this summer, writes Simon Johnson.
The winger, who was given a five-year contract in 2019 having rejected the opportunity to join Bayern Munich, is currently on a season-long loan at Bayer Leverkusen in order to get regular first-team football.
Advertisement
A combination of a serious Achilles injury suffered four years ago and the selection policy of former coach Thomas Tuchel has restricted him to just 66 starts for Chelsea and while Graham Potter likes the player, the signing of Mykhailo Mudryk has only added to the competition for places in attack.
A number of clubs across Europe are keen on Hudson-Odoi, 22, and have started to register their interest this month. He is likely to be available for a bargain fee because he will have just 12 months left on his contract in the summer.
Chelsea will have to give him a contract extension or run the risk of losing him on a free transfer. Hudson-Odoi will be able to start talking to foreign clubs in January 2024 about joining them as a free agent at the end of next season if they do not.
Another factor in Hudson-Odoi’s thinking will be if Chelsea make the loan signing of Joao Felix permanent in the summer.
Hudson-Odoi does not want to rush any decisions and is concentrating on continuing his promising form for Bayer Leverkusen, where he has made 15 appearances.
Fraser and Darlow can leave Newcastle
Ryan Fraser is free to leave Newcastle United this month, but a lack of offers for the club’s fringe players has the potential to affect Eddie Howe’s plans to strengthen before the January window closes, writes Chris Waugh.
The 28-year-old is viewed as Newcastle’s most sellable asset among the players who Howe is receptive to losing mid-season. The Newcastle head coach is looking to make room in his squad for a defensive midfield signing. Howe already has 27 senior players and can only register 25 for the remainder of the campaign. Newcastle are also keen to ease the burden on their wage bill by moving on some peripheral figures.
At the start of pre-season, Fraser asked to depart. Yet Newcastle’s failure to sign a wide forward prevented him from moving, despite interest from Southampton and Bournemouth.
Fraser has started just three league games this season and has not played for Newcastle since October. Howe is reluctant to risk him this month for fear that he picks up an injury that scuppers his chances of a January move.
Newcastle would prefer to sell Fraser but will consider loan offers. They could also allow Karl Darlow to leave, given that they have five senior goalkeepers following Martin Dubravka’s recall from his Manchester United loan.
Howe’s ability to make signings is not based on Newcastle’s outgoing business, but it would aid his chances of bringing in fresh faces.
Hughton in frame for Ghana job
Chris Hughton is a contender to become the new head coach of the Ghana men’s national team, writes Andy Naylor.
The former Newcastle and Brighton manager had been appointed as the country’s technical advisor in February but his contract ended after the World Cup, when Ghana exited at the group stage.
Otto Addo, the former Ghana international, left his position as head coach in December, 11 months after being appointed. He had already told the Ghana Football Association that he intended to leave after the tournament in Qatar.
The Ghana FA said last week that around 60 people had applied for the position and that none had come from Ghana.
Hughton, 64, has not worked as a manager since September 2021, when he was dismissed by Nottingham Forest.
He wants to be a No 1 again and he is keen on the Ghana role but is open to a return to club management if the Black Stars decide to pursue other options.
The new multi-club frontier? Poland
In the week that new Bournemouth owner Bill Foley added a stake in French side Lorient to his portfolio of sports teams, one of the pioneers of the multi-club ownership model edged closer to a first addition even further east, writes Matt Slater.
Pacific Media Group (PMG), which owns full or partial stakes in seven teams in seven countries, including Barnsley, Kaiserslautern and Oostende, is close to completing a deal for Polish second-tier side GKS Tychy.
Based in Poland’s industrial heartland, the club can trace its history back to the early 1970s and have enjoyed two spells in their country’s top division, the most recent in the mid-1990s. Like many Polish teams, it is currently majority-owned by the local council.
PMG, which is run by American investor Paul Conway and his Chinese-American partner Chien Lee, has been looking to invest in Poland for over a year, as it believes there is considerable upside in the Polish market.
Advertisement
With a population of almost 40 million, Poland is the fifth largest country in the European Union, its national team has qualified for the last two Euros and World Cups, and there are Polish players now plying their trades in top-flight leagues across the continent. That last point is particularly significant as PMG’s business plan is based on player trading.
And PMG is not the only US-financed multi-club group looking at the country, as Robert Platek, a partner at IT billionaire Michael Dell’s investment firm MSD Partners, is in talks to buy another Polish second-division club, LKS Lodz. Platek already owns Casa Pia in Portugal and Italy’s Spezia.
With many of the most attractive bargains already snapped up in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, multi-club investors looking for value are going to have to follow PMG and Platek to Poland and other less-developed football markets.