Enzo Maresca has made clear that finding cover for an injured Levi Colwill is a priority for him, even as the club\u2019s wider recruitment appears focused elsewhere. After initial reports suggested Chelsea would not sign a new centre back, Maresca publicly questioned that position and outlined the gap Colwill\u2019s absence will create.<\/p>\n
To the surprise of many, reports in the immediate aftermath of Colwill\u2019s diagnosis claimed that Chelsea would not buy a new centre back to replace him. Recently acquired Jorrel Hato, who played almost exclusively at left back last season, was instead singled out as Colwill\u2019s replacement. Maresca did not accept that as the definitive solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a priority for me,\u201d the Chelsea boss told Channel 5 when discussing the prospect of signing a new defender. \u201cLevi is a fantastic player. What we achieved last season is because of him. He played a lot of games with me, I love him. We are going to miss him.\u201d He also made clear the club will explore alternatives. \u201cWe are also trying to find different solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s activity this summer underlines a clear transfer direction. Chelsea have spent north of \u00a3240 million ($322.8 million) on a group of largely attacking signings while recouping more than \u00a3200 million from player sales this window. That financial position leaves scope to continue buying, but the emphasis so far has been on forward players.<\/p>\n
Negotiations for Manchester United\u2019s Alejandro Garnacho have reportedly been ramped up, and there is hope a deal for RB Leipzig\u2019s Xavi Simons can be tied up. The one defensive name linked to Chelsea, Crystal Palace\u2019s Marc Gu\u00e9hi, appears close to a move to Liverpool. If anything, the Blues are currently closer to selling a centre back than bringing one in, leaving Maresca to press his case for reinforcements at the back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca: signing a centre back is ‘a priority’ after Colwill injury as Chelsea weigh solutions today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[59,242,188,663],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-featured","tag-injury","tag-jorrel-hato","tag-levi-colwill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453","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=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/1454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}