To justify selling Alexander Isak to Liverpool before September 1st, Newcastle must have a top replacement secured, which is no mean feat given the lack of quality options on the market.
It’s just taken one of the greatest individual seasons in league history for Mo Salah to be the only player to outscore the Swede in the Premier League, so finding someone to at least come close to Isak in terms of goalscoring ability and future potential is a truly mammoth task.
Earlier today, The Telegraph reported that we had identified Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson as a ‘serious’ option in our pursuit of a new striker, with other prime candidate Benjamin Sesko seemingly set for Man Utd.
But any hopes of us signing Jackson this summer might have taken an early blow, as the Blues have reportedly set their demands on selling the Senegalese striker…
Chelsea’s giant Jackson demands
According to The Mail’s Chelsea correspondent Kieran Gill, the Blues will demand a frankly ludicrous £80m for Nicolas Jackson if Newcastle come calling after missing out on Man Utd-bound Benjamin Sesko.
Chelsea consider Jackson to be ‘Premier League proven’ after 44 goal involvements in his opening two seasons in England, and are using the figures involved for Sesko (£75m) and Hugo Ekitike (£79m) to pin a valuation on the Senegalese striker.
The 24-year-old joined in a £32m deal from Villarreal back in 2023 and it’s thought Chelsea are open to a sale, with their striker department now boosted by Liam Delap and Joao Pedro’s arrival, again at our expense.
However, it feels like their asking price, if true, is ridiculously inflated and done to capitalise on the desperation on Tyneside as we head towards yet another rejection.
Jackson: underrated but overpriced?
The current striker market, not just in the Premier League but in club football as a whole, is frankly dire.
We were incredibly close to spending £75m+ on a player with 13 Bundesliga goals last campaign, and may soon be expected an even larger amount for a forward with 10 in 30 league appearances last season.
But to say Jackson doesn’t have potential and talent would be a lie, as there is plenty of underlying data to suggest he could actually be suited to Eddie Howe’s system and style of play.
At the end of the day, however, signing Jackson would be a lot easier to stomach if A) that money wasn’t going to Chelsea, and B) that fee wasn’t so woefully inflated.
At around half that figure, Jackson could be an intriguing option. But at £80m? That’s just ludicrous.
Overpriced. He runs and works hard but his final ball and red cards are left to be desired. The only possibility for him to score 20 goals is to go and play for Man City where he will have tons of chances
Widowmaker(Quote)
Agree, he is overpriced way overpriced.
kimtoon(Quote)
55M max, take it or leave it
J(Quote)
Why would we want players who are not good enough for their current clubs.
Like Nunez at the Bindippers, the media seem to think we should be feeding on others scraps.
Only way we can compete at the very top is buy the best, keep and pay our best players the going rate.
Billythefish(Quote)
Overpriced. Surely Ramos or (or in the shorter term) Watkins, make more sense. Haven’t been impressed at all by Jackson when I’ve seen him, and no doubt AFCON is likely to mean absenteeism for a period. Makes no sense this.
Peaco(Quote)
Media trying to manipulate who we sign! We don’t want Jackson no thanks!
ElementOG(Quote)
I haven’t seen enough evidence of quality that Jackson will grow into what we need (and he’s not close in his current state).
£100m + Nunez for Isak is the obvious route to go. I see a lot of potential in Nunez to fit our system.
Howe the toon(Quote)