Aston Villa are working to add to Unai Emery's squad before the summer transfer window closes on September 1
Nicolas Jackson of Chelsea
Interest? Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson(Image: Getty Images)
Aston Villa have showed ‘strong interest’ in Nicolas Jackson in the last couple of days – but are set to miss out on the Chelsea striker.
That’s according to The Sun, who claim Villa like the Senegal forward but add that the Blues’ £70m asking price has "proved a huge hurdle".
They reckon Newcastle, who are embroiled in sagas involving Alexander Isak and Brentford Yoane Wissa, have also asked to be kept in the loop and cite sources claiming "another big club" has been in contact with Jackson’s representatives.
Manchester United were linked earlier this summer but settled on Benjamin Sesko, while Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Napoli and AC Milan have also been mentioned. However, the report claims Jackson’s contract, signed just 11 months ago, will make any deal expensive.
Jackson is yet to play this season having been suspended following a red card at the end of last term, and while he is fit and available to face West Ham tonight, Enzo Maresca has already said he won’t be involved.
"He is available but he’s not going to be part of the squad because we have two players in that position and we know that something can happen before the transfer window closes. The player is open to leave. If he finds a good solution, he’s going to leave.”
As for Villa, while Jackson has worked with Unai Emery at Villarreal, the size of the fee is likely to be prohibitive.
Emery has today delivered a transfer update, saying ideally he wants two players in each position. Up front Villa have Ollie Watkins and the versatile Evann Guessand as an option.
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"The club is working hard to get our structure as strong as possible with the players in the squad, trying to get two players for each position," Emery said.
“There is still work to do, maybe even leaving some players more and we will have to sign and complete the squad with some players.
“The first reason we are now missing some others in our structure and in our squad with our players is because some players left one week or two weeks ago when we were expecting to do a deal before.
“We are working and we have some solutions to try to fix it. But we have to be alert, keep going and the players we have now is enough to compete but thinking all season, thinking hopefully we will face more than 50 matches, we will have to get balance players in the squad and add more players to it.”