Hey everyone! First — the match recap and notes will be coming a little bit later, so thanks for your patience with that. Don’t worry, we’ve got it and in time for tomorrow’s OTHER friendly against Hoffenheim.
But first, here’s some transfer news. French football journalist Fabrice Hawkins is reporting that Tottenham Hotspur are one of three clubs, along with Aston Villa and Atletico Madrid, who are “monitoring” Senegal and Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson as an option in what’s left of the transfer window.
This comes on the heels of a report from a couple of weeks ago in the Mail that Spurs were “considering” a move for Jackson, a report that was quickly rubbished by several prominent English journos, including Alasdair Gold. This one feels a little different — Fabrice Hawkins is a pretty reliable journalist, especially for French (or Franco empire/diaspora) players. The fee is substantial — £60m — but less than the £70m reportedly solicited by Liverpool for Cody Gakpo, and Jackson is three years younger AND a natural striker.
I already said the first time why I’d consider Jackson as an option for Tottenham as an attacking reinforcement and so I won’t go over that again — feel free to click through if you want. This does, however, smack of a potential plan B rather than a primary option. Spurs are clearly still prioritizing Savinho and Gakpo this summer, but it sounds like PSG are demanding stupid money for Liverpool to buy Bradley Barcola, and I’d guess they won’t want to let Gakpo go if they can’t get Barcola in. So Spurs are likely just preparing to pivot to another target if things fall through over Gakpo, and Jackson is likely one of the options there. And the £60m fee that Hawkins mentions is actually less than the £65m reported by the Mail ten days ago.
I know he’s Chelsea and has scored against us many times blah blah blah but honestly I think Jackson is an underrated transfer in this window and I really am not sure why more teams aren’t taking a look at him. He underperforms his xG, but he gets shots in the box, and that’s pretty important. I’d absolutely take him as an option, especially in De Zerbi’s system, and I bet a lot of the people holding their nose will be okay with him the moment his first goal goes into the back of the net.
Again, this is likely a backup plan, so let’s keep it in our pocket for now.
