There has now been some official clarity provided on the situation regarding Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson and his future at the club or otherwise
Towards the end of the summer transfer window, Bayern Munich signed Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson for a loan fee of around 15 million Euros, with an option to buy and an obligation if certain objectives were met.
However, those objectives were regarding game time, with it being said that the Senegalese international needed to start 40 games across all competitions for the obligation to be activated.
Well, when Harry Kane is your competition, that isn't going to be happen. Within a couple of months of the season, it was already impossible for Jackson to start a total of 40 games.
For most of the season, Jackson has deputised for the England captain, coming on when he needs a breather, and starting when he needs a rest or has a knock. He has played 1184 total minutes, equivalent to just over 13 90's.
In that limited game time, the striker has scored 10 goals and provided three assists, so he is essentially providing a goal or assist every 90 minutes. Pretty solid production for a back up striker.
However, it is not enough for the German giants to activate their buy clause for the forward. Indeed, as Bayern sporting director Max Eberl told ZDF via Florian Pletternberg that they will not be trigger the option for Jackson.
So, it will be very interesting to see what happens with the 24-year old now. Everything is so up in the air, nobody even knows who the manager will be next season. Therefore we have absolutely no idea whether or not they will rate Jackson.
There is clearly a very good player there, we saw it at times during his two seasons at the club, particularly in 23/24. We saw him and Cole Palmer link up very well at times, and the Englishman has clearly tailed off since he stopped playing with him.
This summer, Jackson will be at the World Cup with Senegal, where they will be in a group with France, Norway and Iraq. So, dependant on their performance during the tournament, he may not be back at Chelsea until late July, which means less time for the club to look at him during pre-season. So that is something to consider as well.
Although he could frustrate at times, there is no doubt that he is a better player than Liam Delap. Although it is a different conversation altogether with Joao Pedro, you can picture a world where they play in the same team. Let's see.
If he does leave the club in the summer, it will be very interesting to see where now we know that Bayern are off the table.
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