Chelsea already made £70m Nicolas Jackson transfer decision as replacement pathway finally clear

When Chelsea spent £30million to sign a 22-year-old forward who had been playing as a striker for six months in the summer of 2023 it was not expected that their recruitment in the position for the first team would be done. By the time the window closed it turned out that was exactly what was going to happen.

Although Christopher Nkunku had also arrived - joining for £52million from RB Leizig in a deal that had been finalised almost 12 months earlier - there was no direct competition signed for Nicolas Jackson. That wasn't always the way it looked like playing out.

During the window, Mauricio Pochettino's first and only summer in charge, it wasn't for the want of trying. Victor Osimhen was linked after leading Napoli to the Serie A title. Viktor Gyokeres came onto the radar having fired Sporting CP to the domestic title in Portugal, himself.

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Jackson, though, made a positive early impression. His pre-season performances got the attention of Chelsea fans. Pochettino pleaded very publicly for some senior support for the former Villarreal man but it wasn't forthcoming. Jackson, then, entered the season as the focal point, lacking any true backup when Nkunku suffered an injury on the eve of the season.

Even with the two players capable of operating up front - because using the word striker to describe either of them at the time feels wrong - Chelsea weren't done exploring. Another name who emerged for Chelsea was Evan Ferguson.

The then-teenager had just come off scoring six times in 19 Premier League games - including three from his first five. At that point, which now feels a long time ago, he was seriously hot property.

Many would have backed the Irish international to outscore Jackson entering the season. Chelsea's new No.15 was a little-known quantity and although exciting, was not as fresh to the mind as Ferguson, who had started to bully defences with his huge frame and express pace.

There was something about this 18-year-old. He had been compared by some to Didier Drogba (something Jackson has more recently and favourably had as well). Ferguson had arrived from nowhere at Brighton and then flashed into the senior team and made an already good team better.

When, at the start of September, Ferguson scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Newcastle, it was decided. This was the guy for everbody to get behind and go after. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and the rest of the flocking world. Ferguson is the one, he'll cost £100million but he'll be worth it.

Jackson, at the same time, had started well but also showed signs of being the frustrating figure he would be at Stamford Bridge for much of his first six months. There was also plenty of evidence (for those actually looking) that he had the materials to become a top level forward at Premier League level but that went along side his high-profile and already growing catalogue of misses, and then there was the discipline.

Ferguson, in contrast, was just bulldozing his way to goals. Unfortunately for the Irishman, his last of the season (a sixth in the league) came in November and it wouldn't be until last month that he would score again.

Come the summer just past and he was hardly a name to be counted. Ferguson had missed the last two months of Roberto De Zerbi's spell with injury. It coincided with a run of one win in the last nine for Brighton. Chelsea meanwhile, overtook their newfound rivals in the table, elevated themselves to sixth in the table, and Jackson proved that a little bit of patience was worth the wait.

In truth, not loads has changed for the Senegal international. He is a more defined and polished version of the player Chelsea signed but not, as wider narratives would have you believe, a totally changed and unrecognisable figure. This is still the same Jackson, broadly, Chelsea spent £30million and didn't bother to support with Ferguson, £70million more expensive and over three years younger.

That is very much a call that looks better as time goes on. This is not to say that Ferguson will not go on to get himself back to being a dangerous striker, but as Brighton prepare to try and offload him on loan in January in a bid to get him some senior minutes again - as the Telegraph report this week - Chelsea can look with a smug smile to the unfashionable choice they made in 2023.