A thorough update has been provided on the immediate future of Nicolas Jackson and Chelsea’s striker plans for the remainder of the summer window.
Jackson was given the green light to join Bayern Munich on loan for the 2025/26 season, as he was deemed surplus to requirements after Joao Pedro and Liam Delap arrived in the summer. Due to Cole Palmer’s injury, Pedro was back playing behind Delap for the clash against Fulham, but he was forced off after just 14 minutes with an injury.
Subsequently, Chelsea informed Bayern they would not be proceeding with that loan deal, as football.london understands. Where Jackson and the Blues go from here looked unclear with the 24-year-old still in Germany, but a move to Bayern is possible, especially if a new striker joins, according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein.
“Yeah, of course, it’s still possible that he [Jackson] could move to Bayern Munich, but on a permanent basis,” he told Sky Sports Sunday Supplement. “Chelsea, as I understand it, will not countenance a loan now. And so let’s see if that can develop into a full-time opportunity.
“Because as things stand, Nicolas Jackson is still a Chelsea player. He’s contracted to them, and unless something changes, they’ll expect him to come back into Enzo Maresca’s first team squad for what’s an incredibly busy time in both domestic and European competition. So we just have to wait and see how that unfolds.
“Chelsea obviously aren’t going to leave themselves short. On that note, I’ve just reported that Chelsea are actually exploring options now in the transfer market to potentially sign another striker on a permanent basis.
“I don’t think there is a great deal of options to bring in a loan, and so, yeah, they’re scouring potential opportunities, including, I believe, Conrad Harder of Sporting Club in Portugal. He’s believed to be one of a number of options that they’re surveying.
“Harder is a player that many clubs have been looking at he’s just 20 years old and in this small pool of number nines in football at the moment where supply is completely outweighed by demand.
“He’s a player who does have the sort of attributes that could really suit a team like Chelsea, despite being young and not having played that much last season.
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“So it’s interesting, but they’ll have others too. And, you know, their recruitment team has done a lot of trading in recent years. And so we don’t know that a move for Harder is going to develop, but he’s among those that they’re looking at as this frenzy of activity continues.”
Sporting have already sold one striker this summer with Viktor Gyokeres joining Arsenal and as he was ultimately replaced by Colombia international Luis Suarez, Harder could be free to depart with that evidenced by claims being made in Germany that RB Leipzig have had a £19million (€23m) offer accepted.
Asked how much he could cost, Ornstein said: “That’s a very good question especially so late in the market, but you know not an outrageous figure and you know supporting.
“The club really drove a hard bargain, as hard as they could for Gyokeres but this would be a much lower fee if they were to consider it but of course they’ll need to think about their own squad and how that’s shaping up in in the season ahead in terms of their decision to potentially releasing.”
