Last night the news emerged that Chelsea had concluded a deal with Atletico Madrid for the transfer of Samu Omorodion.
The forward has agreed a £35m deal to come to compete with Nicolas Jackson to be our number one striker.
It’s going to be hard to fit them both into the team at the same time – but with the Europa Conference League now on the cards there are a lot of striker minutes to be shared between them.
One would think that these manoeuvres would rule Chelsea out of further interest in attacking players – but according to our writer Simon Phillips on Substack, that’s simply not the case. He says that one of the darlings of last summer, Evan Ferguson, is still a player who interests us. There have been internal discussions for some time about his potential and whether he’s the next big thing up front we should be pushing for.
A big name that hasn’t lived up to the potential yet
After a phenomenal breakthrough year, Ferguson really struggled last year for Brighton. There are a few factors involved though, and many would say that he was really the worst type of striker for Roberto De Zerbi. Ferguson is a big traditional number 9, while De Zerbi wants lots of passing between the lines.
Things could well improve dramatically under their new manager – although he’s exceptionally inexperienced, and Ferguson will be fearing another down year just as he needs to be improving and reaching his potential.
He’s still just 19, but Nicolas Jackson has started well and Omorodion looks a menace too. Chelsea could well be out of the Ferguson race for good if both of them end up firing this season.
Given the prices being quoted last summer (more than both Jackson and Omorodion combined) that could well end up being a smart move.