Chelsea’s chase for a striker has seen them work their way down a long list of targets. A year ago it was Victor Osimhen, 6 months ago Viktor Gyokeres, now we’re on to Samu Omorodion, the Atletico Madrid forward who spent last season on loan at Alaves, scoring 8 La Liga goals in the process.
Nick Purewal’s piece in the Evening Standard today sums up the progress on that front – Atletico have rejected a £30m offer from Chelsea and are “determined to hold onto one of their most prized young talents.”
It seems like the Spain U21 star is competing with Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran to be the man we bring in to be Nicolas Jackson’s alternate up top. Jackson had just started to find his feet towards the end of last season, and show he could be our number one option. But there’s still a strong desire to see competition brought in to help him and to push him on to a new level.
A new twist in the tale
That’s all well and good, and pretty much in line with that we’ve seen repeated and reported across the board in the last 24 hours. But Graeme Bailey, a less reliable source but one who definitely has a few sources on the inside, has now claimed that there was even more to this than initially met the eye.
While in discussions with us about the striker, Atletico apparently asked about potentially buying or loaning Jackson in return..
This is clearly a non-starter – we’re trying to buy Omorodion as a backup to Jackson. Simply trading strikers with Atletico isn’t going to help either of us. But the suggestion that Jackson isu nsettled or unhappy, made in the piece, is one to keep an eye on.
