Colwill acknowledged both spells away from Stamford Bridge were hugely beneficial to his development with Brighton so taken by his performances they made a £30 million bid to make the move permanent – an offer knocked back by Chelsea who immediately handed him a new six-year contract.
“I went there to develop but I always wanted to come back to Chelsea, that has always been my main goal,” Colwill said. “While there I was 100 per cent focused on Brighton but in the back of your head it’s about coming back to your home team and to play.”
Colwill insists his decision to wear No. 26 has nothing to do with Terry’s legacy and unlike Kalidou Koulibaly, who left the club in the summer, he did not seek the former skipper’s permission before claiming it as his own.
However, he is aware of the huge expectations that come with it from Chelsea fans and knows they will heighten if the club’s six-year domestic trophy drought continues.
“Chelsea’s culture is winning. That’s it, really. That’s all Chelsea knows: to win. To be a legend, you’ve got to win trophies, you’ve got to apply yourself with that one focus on winning,” he said.
“For Chelsea fans, for JT it’s a big number but I have confidence in myself that I can come in and play well, and be my own person. The big thing about stepping in to this number is that you can get carried away a lot by the presence of it. But I am coming in to play as myself and not be John Terry because you will never be able to replace the legend that he was.
“I know that it’s his old number but it is a big number for me personally, it was my first professional number at Huddersfield and it’s also my birthday.”
Terry is back working at Chelsea in an academy role and Colwill admits he has the same presence around the club that he held as a player.
“When he was walking around at Chelsea when I was growing up, you think ‘there’s the captain’ and he still has that aura,” he said. “A really big thing for everyone, the staff and the players is that we always see him up in the canteen and he is always really down to earth.
“I think I can learn so much from him just from a casual conversation. Hopefully in the future I can have many more conversations with him and learn as much as possible from him. This is a really young squad. If I pick up that leadership part of him and add it to my own qualities, I can help out a lot more.”
Colwill’s has fonder memories of his first trip to Wembley when he was an 11-year-old mascot for Sholing in the FA Vase final – a competition for clubs who compete in steps nine to 11 of the English football league pyramid.
Three of his uncles played in the team that won 1-0 that day but it will be a case of split family loyalties for his Liverpool-supporting parents in the stands.
“My dad, Levi and my mum, Deborah, they both just supported Liverpool growing up, I don’t know why as they’re from Southampton,” he said. “My dad is a real Liverpool fan, he tells me all the news, injuries, if they’re on a run, the knowledge that fans have that I wouldn’t really know myself.
“Of course, they want me to win. Supporting teams goes out of the window when your son plays for one of the teams involved. It’s going to be a big game. But if we beat them, I’ll give him a bit of stick”.”
