Chelsea ‘hold talks over’ Villareal striker Nicolas Jackson — report

Chelsea are set to add Christopher Nkunku to our attacking options this summer, but we are still searching for a proper striker as well, and we may even be willing to look beyond the obvious and vastly overpriced options, such as Victor Osimhen.

In fact, according to an exclusive from the Evening Standard, we have already “held talks over a move” for Villarreal’s Nicolas Jackson. It’s unclear if those talks were with the club, with the player, or just among ourselves.

Jackson, who will turn 22 next week, scored 12 goals in 26 La Liga matches this past season, which is decent, but what really made it a breakout year for the Gambia-born Senegal international was that he scored 9 of those in his last 8 appearances, adding a couple assists as well. Not quite the pedigree of a Harry Kane or Kylian Mbappé, but also quite a bit more attainable, supposedly “set to be available” for “just” £30m — just a slight bump on the £22.5m deal that they had agreed with AFC Bournemouth in January, but which fell through due to a failed medical. Clearly, Jackson has recovered from that hamstring problem pretty okay.

The report claims that a couple other strikers on our shortlist include Atalanta’s Rasmus Højlund and Juventus’ Dušan Vlahović, but both would cost over twice as much as Jackson.