Chelsea made Victor Osimhen transfer bid for Enzo Maresca after clear £30m statement

After almost two years, 77 matches, 68 starts, around 5,500 minutes, 18 yellow cards, and 10 goals, Nicolas Jackson finally cracked. Just over half an hour into Chelsea’s crunch Champions League qualification showdown at Newcastle United, his patience ran out.

In truth, Jackson’s fuse has never been that long and across the same period he has found increasingly frustrating ways to get himself into trouble since arriving at Chelsea. It is something Mauricio Pochettino commented on two months into last season when Jackson picked up a one-match suspension for reaching five Premier League yellow cards in seven games.

That left Pochettino without a fit senior striker for a match away at Fulham. He just about found an answer and somehow Jackson managed to avoid hitting the second yellow card threshold for the rest of the campaign.

Enzo Maresca may well have sympathy with his predecessor because now he will be without Jackson – still Chelsea’s only natural senior No.9 – for the final two league games. They will define just how successful this season is, with Champions League football on the line.

Jackson has rightly copped a lot of flack for his errant elbow at St James’ Park. It was a moment of stupidity after 35 minutes of being dominated aerially and physically by Newcastle’s three huge centre-backs. Chelsea’s methods of sending direct balls his way was not working and Jackson, already on edge after a disappointing 2025, lost his head.

There is no excusing Jackson’s action but look beneath the surface and it shouldn’t be a surprise. Jackson is 23 and will turn 24 this summer but he is still relatively junior at the top level. This isn’t what many want a Chelsea striker to look like but it is what they have.

Jackson was signed off the back of less than 2,000 La Liga minutes across two years at Villarreal. His promise was there as a left-winger who moved central and had a hot streak to back up his talent, but Jackson was and still is raw.

He has shown signs of becoming a more polished Premier League calibre striker, scoring seven in 12 at the start of this season in a variety of ways after managing 14 from open play with five assists last year. Jackson’s link play has largely gotten better but he is prone to moments of irrevocable unpredictability. This is not how teams looking to play in the Champions League spearhead themselves.

This much was clear when Chelsea signed Jackson for around £30million in 2023. Continuing a recruitment drive aimed at potential rather than immediate quality raises these sorts of hitches. After two years, most expected Jackson to be an ironed out version of the erratic forward Chelsea purchased but that has not quite worked out.

His goal against Everton two weeks ago was his first in the league since mid-December with only two in the Conference League semi-final first leg away at Djurgarden to show for his toil. An injury lay-off in the middle has not helped that but Jackson had gone eight games without scoring before that, even if he did provide two nice assists in there against Bournemouth and Manchester City.

He missed big chances to win that Bournemouth game in the first half and was dropping off in confidence at City as well. He could have had a hat-trick before the break in a 1-1 draw to Crystal Palace in early January but spurned big opportunities.

Jackson is still not consistent and has had pretty much no help since arriving. Chelsea’s goals have mainly come from Cole Palmer domestically with Noni Madueke the next most prolific. Outside of a hat-trick away at Wolves on the second weekend of the season he only has four goals in the league this season and only managed five in his first full year.

Pedro Neto has never been a regular goalscorer and has four. Jadon Sancho is meant to be more of a creator and only has three. Christopher Nkunku has downed tools since failing to get a transfer over the winter and does not look happy wherever and whenever he plays. He has scored three.

This is not the sort of support someone like Jackson needs. Marc Guiu was brought in over the summer as an 18-year-old with limited senior experience. He was a deal done out of opportunity and low-risk at £5million from the Barcelona academy. Guiu has offered energy when fit but very little sign of Premier League quality yet.

And that, with Nkunku clearly not seen as a striker by Maresca, was it. For the second year in a row, Chelsea banked on Nkunku fitting a role he has never really played (at least not with any desire) and a second-rate alternative. Last season it was Armando Broja returning from injury having never scored more than eight goals in a league campaign, this time it was Guiu.

So, there is definitely mitigation for Jackson’s poor performances. He has rough edges which have not been smoothed over and remains an erratic finisher but it should not be any major shock that he has wilted somewhat under the weight of pressure and expectation.

Jackson has gone from being a squad player at Villarreal to Chelsea’s only striker for two years. That is not how to build a competent squad, let alone an elite one.

It all looks set to change over the summer but the damage might have been done. Jackson’s red card and suspension has put Chelsea’s Champions League hopes in the balance again.

The plans to bring in another striker when the transfer window opens – ideally before the Club World Cup – are very much in place. How might that change if Chelsea are not at the top table in Europe next season? It waits to be seen, but the market is a crowded one with Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool all shopping for centre forwards.

Chelsea went after Jhon Duran last summer only to pull out late on. They were big on Samu Aghehowa (formerly Omorodion) and have long been admirers of Jonathan David.

Liam Delap is a player they are keen to look at, and he has previous with Maresca, Palmer, and Romeo Lavia. There are Chelsea-City academy ties with Joe Shields, Laurence Stewart, and Glenn van der Kraan.

Viktor Gyokeres has the attention of Europe after another stellar season in Portugal but the quality of his opposition on a weekly basis provides some red flags. Benjamin Sesko has had another impressive enough year in Germany but questions over his suitability for the Premier League remain.

Then there is Hugo Ekitike. He is a breakout star at Eintracht Frankfurt but is sure to be on the more expensive end of the scale. Victor Osimhen commands some of the highest wages across the world and although he looks tailor made for a club like Chelsea, paying him is going to be a serious problem.

They wasted time at the end of last summer looking into a loan deal and would not budge on their wage structure. It seems unlikely that things are about to shift enough for a deal to be done now.

Somehow Chelsea will need to sift through the names to find a suitable foil for Jackson; a player to push him but also work in tandem in a squad hoping to be on the hunt for multiple pieces of silverware come this time next year. It is something they needed two years ago but neither Maresca or Pochettino were given the tools.

Maresca’s reaction to Jackson at the weekend – turning away in disgust when he was sent off and not talking to him – shows just how costly all of this could prove to be. Nobody can argue it was not Jackson’s fault but the system in place has not been there to aid him.

Chelsea will have to change this this summer if they are to kick on. Maresca’s suggestion that Chelsea would have been much better off with someone like Guiu just does not rub and only adds to the picture that the squad constructed is not fit for purpose.