Vincent Kompany has delivered a bombshell update on Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson that leaves the player’s long-term future at Stamford Bridge hanging in the balance.
Despite Bayern Munich inserting a controversial obligation-to-buy clause into the deal last September, the Senegal international is now expected to return to Chelsea at the end of the season.
The 24-year-old has made 22 appearances for the German champions across all competitions this term but has been restricted to just 650 minutes of action. His role has diminished even further in recent weeks, with Jackson spending increasing amounts of time on the bench.
Speaking after Bayern’s 3-2 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening — a match in which Jackson was an unused substitute — Kompany was full of praise for the loanee but refused to commit to his future.
“We enjoy having Nicolas Jackson with us,” the Bayern manager told reporters, as quoted by Goal. “Any decision about the summer will be discussed with Nicolas himself and between the clubs. I don’t have an answer now. The only thing I know is that we’re very happy to have him.”
Chelsea and Bayern struck a deal worth more than £70 million in total. The Bundesliga side paid an initial £14.2 million loan fee for the season, with a further £56.2 million obligation to buy if certain performance-related conditions were met.
Bayern had originally wanted only a straight loan with an option to buy. However, Chelsea pulled the plug at the last minute after Liam Delap suffered a hamstring injury against Fulham. In a frantic late twist, Jackson’s representatives stayed in Munich and Bayern eventually agreed to a season-long loan that included the obligation-to-buy clause — but only if Jackson completed around 40 appearances.
With just 11 Bundesliga matches remaining, a handful of DFB-Pokal ties and whatever is left of their Champions League campaign, that threshold now looks virtually impossible to reach.
Back at Cobham, new Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior has been working closely with summer signing Liam Delap, who has struggled to displace João Pedro as the club’s first-choice striker.
Asked about Delap’s contribution, Rosenior made it clear what he values in a forward.
“I look for people who contribute to the team winning games of football,” the Blues boss said. “Liam certainly did that against Hull and has done that in other games as well. All strikers want to score goals, of course — that’s why they play the game and what they love to do. But there’s a lot more you need to win games.
“You need 11 attackers and 11 defenders at all times and Liam defends from the front amazingly well, so does João. They have contributed to what has been a good record for us recently, and it has to continue.”
The contrasting messages from Munich and west London have left Jackson’s situation shrouded in uncertainty — a cold reality for Chelsea fans who thought they had secured their long-term No.9.