Latest transfer report shows Chelsea looking to support Nicolas Jackson not replace him | OneFootball

Chelsea’s striker situation this summer is a hard one for the ownership to figure out.

On the one hand, they signed Nicolas Jackson a year ago, and saw some really promising signs from his first year at the club. On the other hand, they also saw some of his weaknesses, and there’s a desperate lack of options in the squad in his position at the moment.

So what do they do – go for a really cheap backup who is happy to spend most of the season on the bench behind Jackson? Or try for a top tier, elite player who would represent a certain upgrade on the Senegal striker?

It’s a tough call to make. At the moment, the strongest rumours are linking them with Jhon Duran of Aston Villa. He would be something of a halfway between the two – at the moment his £40m+ asking price makes him more than a cheap option, but he’s also even less proven than Jackson, and can’t be called a clear upgrade either.

The latest report on the striker’s transfer situation comes from Nick Purewal at the Evening Standard, who says that Colombia international Duran “would relish a chance to work alongside Nicolas Jackson,” indicating that the two of them would be competing (and playing together) rather than having one above the other.

Jhon Duran playing for Aston Villa.

A question of strategy

Purewal’s piece says “Chelsea are confident of agreeing a deal with Villa for the 20-year-old, if they settle on Duran as their striker signing for the summer,” with that if doing a lot of the lifting.

It seems they haven’t even really figured out what their strategy is going to be themselves yet. But what is clear is that the idea of signing a major striker superstar like Victor Osimhen or Viktor Gyokeres is quickly fading.