Let’s take it back a few months. Eighty days, to be exact.
It is transfer deadline day of the 2024 summer window. Chelsea, despite having another really busy window, are not done yet regarding their business. The Blues are still trying to sign Victor Osimhen from Napoli.
A long-term target of the club’s, but a deal that is complicated due to the Nigerian’s wage demands. Chelsea’s approach to signings is very clear; the club like to buy the player when they are ‘unproven’ and young, so that usually means they demand a fairly modest salary.
However, there can be exceptions; but only if the player is deemed good enough to take a risk on. Chelsea spent days on end towards the end of the window trying to negotiate a deal that would see Osimhen move to Stamford Bridge.
The Blues, however, ended up pulling out of negotiations with Osimhen refusing to lower his wage demands. The Nigeria international ended up moving to Galatasaray on an initial loan deal – leaving Chelsea with Nicolas Jackson as Enzo Maresca’s main option as a No.9.
After a quietly impressive debut season with the club, with Jackson scoring 17 goals in all competitions, there were still some doubts over whether the 23-year-old striker was good enough to lead the line for a side wanting to get back into the top four. Jackson, though, was not deterred whatsoever with all of the Osimhen talk over the summer.
Instead, the Senegalese striker has made quite the start to the 2024/25 season, with six goals and three assists in the Premier League to date. Former Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop believes Jackson has become the most improved player in the whole division.
“If we did a most improved Premier League list, Nicolas Jackson would probably be top of it,” Hislop said to ESPN. “Given his struggles last season, I wondered if he’d be able to make the grade in a league like this.
“All of a sudden, what we’ve been seeing from Jackson under Maresca for Chelsea has been absolutely revealing. Everything about Jackson’s game has improved.”
While Jackson is averaging more than a goal every other game in the top-flight, it is not only that element of his game that has impressed Maresca. Jackson’s all-round game has come on this season, with some of his hold-up and link-up play with the attacking players around him particularly impressive in the early stages of the campaign.
Speaking last month, Maresca said this on Jackson: “We know very well that he is important for us. On the ball he is working fantastic – he’s scoring goals, he’s assisting, he’s linking with his teammates.
