Chelsea have signalled they will not immediately move for a new centre back to replace Levi Colwill, instead placing responsibility on one of their summer recruits and existing squad members. Enzo Maresca trusted Colwill more than any other centre back in his squad, handing the mature 22-year-old more than 3,700 minutes of football across all competitions last term. \u201cI told him that if we achieve what we achieved last year, it is also because of him,\u201d Maresca revealed before confirmation of Colwill\u2019s injury was delivered. \u201cHe was a main player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports suggest Maresca hinted the club might return to the transfer market should Colwill be sidelined for an extended period. That is not the immediate plan, according to coverage from Fabrizio Romano. The reigning club world champions are not expected to respond with a panic signing; instead Maresca is understood to have \u201cfull trust\u201d in his current crop of players, with summer arrival Jorrel Hato highlighted as a ready option.<\/p>\n
Hato signed from Ajax on Aug. 3, one day before Colwill pulled up towards the end of Chelsea\u2019s training session clutching his knee. The 19-year-old Netherlands international has been described as a bright young defender who offers authority and composure in possession and positional flexibility. Francesco Farioli almost exclusively deployed Hato as a left back last season but the left footer has ample experience in the middle of a backline. More than a third of his career appearances have come at centre back, per Transfermarkt.<\/p>\n
Beyond Hato, Chelsea have numbers to call on. There are eight senior centre backs currently on Chelsea\u2019s books. Several are expected to be moved on this summer, but the likes of Beno\u00eet Badiashile and Wesley Fofana have made their intentions to stay in west London abundantly clear. For now the club will prioritise internal solutions and the new signing rather than an immediate external recruitment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea will prioritise Jorrel Hato and internal options after Levi Colwill\u2019s injury, not buying. now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[242,188,663],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-injury","tag-jorrel-hato","tag-levi-colwill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1379,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions\/1379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}