Chelsea drop double transfer hint amid Victor Osimhen and Nicolas Jackson rumours

Chelsea unveiled their brand new away shirt earlier today and may well have dropped one or two transfer hints in the process.

The club launched their brand new away strip on Thursday morning, with Nike providing an off-white colour, combined with dark military green and red. There are eight stripes (four green and four red) running down the middle of the shirt – drawing inspiration from Chelsea’s away shirt in 1974/75.

Selected from the men’s team to pose in the imagery for the kit launch were Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson, both of whom have been linked with departures from Stamford Bridge this summer. Usually, if a club picks players for their kit launch, it means they will be wearing it at some point next season. While this is not always the case, in Madueke and Jackson’s, it should well be.

Madueke has been linked with a move away from Chelsea this summer but football.london understands the 23-year-old, who has scored more goals than any other winger in the squad this season, remains valued by those at Stamford Bridge. It is a similar situation for Jackson.

The Senegal international has been linked with an exit following the £30million arrival of Liam Delap last week, Chelsea’s ongoing pursuit of Hugo Ekitike and rumours over a move for Victor Osimhen. However, Enzo Maresca remains a huge admirer of the work Jackson does for Chelsea and the club have no active intention of allowing the 23-year-old forward to leave this summer.

In fact, when asked about the “perfect striker” for his squad, Maresca said – when speaking to journalists back in April – that Jackson fits that mould. “My perfect No.9 is exactly Nico Jackson,” the Chelsea head coach said. “If we can have a copy of Nico, it’s okay.

“I have said many times, and you can see as well, with Nico we are a better team. Nico is the one we need. Last season, he scored goals without penalties. This season he scored goals until he was injured. Now, hopefully he can score more goals without penalties. We are happy with Nico.”

Since those comments, though, Delap has arrived through the door, with Maresca reuniting with the striker he used to coach during their days at the Manchester City academy. It will be interesting to see the dynamic during the FIFA Club World Cup that gets underway over the weekend.

Chelsea travel to Atlanta in the coming days before taking on Los Angeles FC on Monday evening at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Jackson has been with the Senegal squad so will have had less time to prepare with his Blues teammates, while Delap has been at Cobham this week getting to know his new colleagues.