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England defender Levi Colwill is enjoying interim boss Lee Carsley’s “arrogance” in believing he has the best players in the world at his disposal.
The Chelsea centre-back, who is likely to feature at left-back in upcoming Nations League games against Greece and Finland, has been reunited with Carsley, who has stepped up from his role as Under-21s manager following Gareth Southgate’s departure.
The pair won the European Under-21 Championship together last year and Colwill has hailed his “amazing manager”.
Carsley is beginning to get his feet under the table and has told his players they can get over the line and end the country’s major trophy drought.
“Obviously I’ve known him a long time now. He gave me my England Under-21s debut, he’s played me here,” Colwill explained.
“I’ve got a very good relationship with him, there’s a lot of trust in there.
“He’s an amazing person, an amazing manager and I’ve got no bad words to say about him because he’s won me an Under-21 Euro Championship, he’s picked me for two camps, so he’s an amazing person, an amazing manager.
“I think the lads really like him. I do and I can only really talk about myself. I trust him and we’ll see what happens in the future.
“He’s a very calm person. I think he brings that to the team.
He has a bit of arrogance about the team and himself, in terms of, ‘we’ve got the best players in the world’, and we all believe that
Levi Colwill on Lee Carsley
“An amazing person and a strong-minded manager. He knows how he wants to play and how it matches the players we’ve got.
“He has a bit of arrogance about the team and himself, in terms of, ‘we’ve got the best players in the world’, and we all believe that.
“We can take that next step to winning a huge competition.”
Colwill has become a key player for Chelsea in the early part of this season and the 21-year-old puts that down to leaving the footballer-heavy Surrey suburbs in favour of a return to his native Southampton.
He is enjoying home life and does not mind the M3 commute to Chelsea’s training ground.
“I recently moved back to Southampton, so I’m around all the people I grew up with,” he said. “Being connected with them again is what life is about for me.
“Growing up as a player at City Central in Southampton, with my mates, was the best time of my life.
“I’m really happy I’ve gone back, seeing my friends and family so much more. That’s probably reflected on the pitch. It’s helped me so much in my career and helped me enjoy football like I did back then.
“My family are from Southampton and still live near there, so I’ve moved back into my family home and do the travel in every day. “It’s all right. Everyone thinks it is worse than it actually is, but it is all right.
“No matter how long a day I’ve had, when I get back and see my dog and my mum, dad and little brother, it just means the world to me.”