There’s a messy situation at Chelsea right now as the club have left one of their players absolutely fuming yesterday.
There is never a dull moment at this football club, and as we approach the last day of the summer transfer window tomorrow, things are about to get even more dramatic as well.
Liam Delap got injured playing for Chelsea yesterday in their 2-0 win against Fulham, and manager Enzo Maresca confirmed that he is now expected to be out for 6-8 weeks following a hamstring injury.
This caused Chelsea to act fast and stop striker Nicolas Jackson’s move to Bayern Munich. Jackson had just landed in Germany and then was informed by Chelsea that he was not allowed to take a medical or complete his loan move to Bayern. Jackson was said to be left unhappy by this.
And amongst all of that going on last night, Chelsea also confirmed the signing of new player Alejandro Garnacho from Manchester United – so it was all going on.
But there is still the Jackson situation to be sorted out, and apparently he’s not coming back to Chelsea!
He might have to!
Jackson is contracted to Chelsea and nothing has been fully signed yet for his deal to join Bayern on loan, so the player has no choice but to do what his club are telling him to do, which is return back to London and play for Chelsea, at least until January.
But he has no intentions to return
An exclusive from The Sun says that Jackson and his entourage have no intention of flying back to the UK as they push for the deal to go through.
They also say that Jackson has been left fuming by the situation.
Jackosn’s agent Ali Barat was last night trying to resurrect the move. Jackson is determined to complete the move to Bayern.
And this could have been avoided had we gone ahead and gotten Simons instead of Garnacho. As I commented yesterday, we were one bad knock away from this exact crisis because we have no cover (save Pedro) at the #10 and, sadly, here we are 24 hours later in said crisis.
As for Jackson, I certainly feel for him, but, as he is under contract, happy or not, his professional obligation is to return to the club and play. Should he do so, he stands to get everything he wants in the January window (and perhaps more if he performs well). But should he fail to do so, he’s only going to undermine his own career. If he throws a tantrum now (hurt as fits feelings may be over this whole debacle) it will only reinforce the narrative his two petulant red cards and his inconsistency in front of goal has begun—that, though talented, he lacks mental focus and self-control when it matters most.
As smart as some of our dealings have been this off-season, prioritizing Garnacho over Simons remains a real head-scratcher to me, especially once we had deals for both Nkunku and Jackson lined up. We knew their departure was going to begin to leave us thin in the middle of attack. So, why in the world did they let Simons slip through their fingers (or else plan to keep a third striker, like Guiu, from the very beginning)?
Please let him should come back
At least just from now to January is ok