Chelsea have been actively shopping striker Nicolas Jackson on the transfer market, and it seems like the calls to get rid of Jackson reached a crescendo after another costly red card put the Blues on the receiving end of an upset in the group stages of the Club World Cup.
They would recover from that defeat to win the entire tournament, blowing out reigning Champions League winners PSG in the Final, but, if anything, that made it more obvious that Jackson is a weak link.
Chelsea went out and signed two new strikers in Joao Pedro and Liam Delap, who ranked among the best young forwards in the Premier League last season and should be able to usurp Jackson next season.
According to a new report from the Daily Mail’s Kieran Gill, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has another plot to replace Nicolas Jackson in the squad if he is indeed sold before the window closes.
Chelsea didn’t sign a big-time scorer this summer
Apparently, Maresca doesn’t actually want Chelsea to sign another striker, which would explain why the Blues haven’t been linked to anyone, even as Jackson gets courted by the likes of Tottenham.
There aren’t many suitors for Jackson, so Chelsea will likely have to stand pat anyway. But even if they do sell Jackson, Maresca isn’t keen on buying anyone and doesn’t feel like there is a need to directly replace him in the squad.
That’s because, interestingly enough, Maresca thinks that Estevao Willian, Pedro Neto, and Cole Palmer can be utilized as false nines in the Chelsea XI if an emergency developed due to depth issues and a sans-Jackson Chelsea didn’t have any true strikers available.
The jury is entirely out on where Willian fits at the next level, but Neto and Palmer could be conceivably decent enough emergency 9’s for Chelsea against a lower-level opponent if both Delap and Pedro were to get injured without Jackson in the squad.
That’s still far from ideal, though, and while Delap and Pedro are talented players, they aren’t nailed-on 20-goal strikers. Chelsea still didn’t sign that type of player, balking on the likes of Victor Osimhen and Benjamin Sesko, and you have to wonder if Chelsea supporters will, like Arsenal, rue that decision by this time next year.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2011. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has contributed to sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. Joe’s work has appeared in ESPN, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling, respectively.