When Nicolas Jackson was first at Chelsea three years ago we used to laugh that he picked up more Premier League yellow cards than he did goals.
By the time Chelsea decided he wasn’t good enough and shipped him off to Bayern Munich on loan at the start of last season, he had redressed the balance but only just. The score was 24-18 in favour of the goals.
Jackson was a bit of a liability, both in front of referees and indeed in front of goal. The Senegalese striker never really looked good enough and was moved on when Chelsea signed what they felt were upgrades in Liam Delap and Joao Pedro.
You may already feel you know the pay-off to this story but some things still need laying out in black and white.
Jackson didn’t do overly well at Bayern, where he didn’t play much. Delap bombed at Chelsea where he scored once in the league. Yet over the course of the last week, Chelsea have moved both players on at significant profit.
Jackson has joined Aston Villa for £65m while Delap has moved to Nottingham Forest for £50m. That’s a combined uptick of £35m.
Chelsea determined Nicolas Jackson was not good enough and have moved the forward on
Aston Villa spending £15m more on Jackson than they received for Ollie Watkins illustrates the mad fees paid by Premier League clubs this summer
Chelsea will be thrilled at this but the Premier League should be less so as it comes towards the end of a summer where too many English clubs have allowed their desperation for rapid improvement to bleed into madness.
Watching our big clubs thrash around seemingly devoid of strategy, planning or vision does nothing for the league’s image. In fact it’s been embarrassing.
Tottenham have paid £100m for Sandro Tonali (£25m more than Arsenal paid for his superior Newcastle team-mate Bruno Guimaraes) and more than £80m for Manchester City’s underwhelming winger Omar Marmoush.
Manchester United have paid almost £50m for midfielder Andrey Santos – another Chelsea player – seemingly on the evidence of one decent loan season at Strasbourg while Liverpool have put £120m down for PSG’s talented but capricious Bradley Barcola while seemingly overlooking the fact they don’t have a fully functioning full-back on the books.
Time can change some of this. Performances on the field can nudge our definition of what is ‘value’ one way or the other.
Villa manager Unai Emery – who has lost six of his starting eleven from last season’s Europa League final – will feel he can bring the best from Jackson, a striker he once worked with at Villarreal. Delap had injury problems at Chelsea last year.
Equally it is hard to cast an eye over the work of some of our top clubs this summer and see intelligence and clever patterns. Easier to see a bunch who know they aren’t where they need to be and are trying desperately to make up ground fast.
It’s been an unedifying spectacle perhaps illustrated well by the fact that Villa paid £15m more for Jackson than they got when selling Ollie Watkins to Saudi Arabia.
In what kind of world does that make any sense?
SLEDGING IS POINTLESS
Delap made his debut for Forest as a substitute at Anfield and his quick throw-in helped his team win a penalty.
Before it was taken, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk spent some time chirping in the ear of James McAtee who was holding the ball by the penalty spot.
It was a waste of time and energy, given that McAtee promptly handed it to Morgan Gibbs-White who smashed it past Alisson Becker in the Liverpool goal.
This is routine practice now at penalties. As such it’s probably time defenders spared us the sledging. It’s as ugly as it is pointless.
GAKPO SHOULD STAY
It’s obvious that Liverpool would be wrong to sell Cody Gakpo. Already this season, the Dutch international has been Liverpool’s best attacking player and his record since signing for the club after a progressive 2022 winter World Cup has been more than respectable.
Liverpool’s current squad lacks balance and depth and taking Gakpo out of it would be damaging, even if they do sign another wide player.
Just as importantly, Gakpo would be wrong to push for a move. Neither of the two interested parties would particularly suit him.
It is obvious it would be wrong for Liverpool to sell Cody Gakpo before the transfer deadline
Tottenham feels like a mish-mash in terms of the range of forward players being assembled for Roberto de Zerbi while it’s hard to see where he would fit in at Manchester City, given the established presence of players like Antoine Semenyo, Jeremy Doku and Phil Foden.
If Gakpo feels a little under-appreciated at Anfield, it would be understandable. In his three and half seasons at the club, he has often been the unsexy member of a gang that has featured players like Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and, now, the incoming Barcola.
But Gakpo represents some consistency and overlap with the end of the Jurgen Klopp era and Liverpool need some of that.
The fact is that if he stays at Liverpool this season, he will play many games. That should be enough for him to wish to stay – and for Liverpool to wish to keep him.
MAINOO’S BIG SEASON – AGAIN
One of the strangest sights at the World Cup was that of Kobbie Mainoo regularly walking out of match stadiums and on to the official bus ten minutes ahead of his England team-mates.
The young midfielder didn’t play a minute in America and looked a little lost as players like Jordan Henderson and Reece James were selected as understudies in the central midfield position.
So this feels like a big season for the Manchester United midfielder once again.
The 21-year-old was back in Michael Carrick’s team for the defeat of Ipswich at Old Trafford as the United manager made changes to the side that flunked at Hull eight days earlier.
In a United team that still looks vulnerable out of possession, Carrick desperately needs a midfielder who can plug gaps and spot danger in that area in front of his back four.
This is exactly the part of Mainoo’s game that has previously been criticised by the likes of Graeme Souness.
The challenge to grow, adapt and improve is therefore set for one of the brightest young talents in the English game.
It feels like a big season for Kobbie Mainoo, who must help plug gaps and spot danger for Man United
PEDRO IS A HUMAN BEING
Joao Pedro took some very obvious stick from Brighton fans at Stamford Bridge and therefore chose to celebrate in front of them after scoring a goal against his old club.
Why is anybody surprised?
Footballers have eyes and ears and feelings. It would be stranger if they didn’t react to stuff like this.
HOW LONG CAN MOYES KEEP EVERTON AFLOAT?
David Moyes’ affinity for Everton is clear. This is his thirteenth season across two spells. But how long he is prepared to act as a shield for the club’s owners The Friedkin Group must be open to question.
After hearing chief executive Angus Kinnear say last week that last season had been a ‘failure’, Moyes has subsequently watched the club try to sell one of his brightest talents Harrison Armstrong to Forest.
That plan appears to have been ditched after protests from Everton fans which would appear to suggest TFG lack conviction as well as clear strategy.
Everton have taken four points from two Premier League games so far and it’s just as well.
The moment Moyes and his players stop performing is the moment uncertainty about the club’s current owners will become the backdrop to the season ahead.
How long David Moyes is prepared to shield Everton’s owners must be open to question
RISKY BUSINESS AT FULHAM
Alvaro Arbeloa’s coaching experience has previously been limited to Real Madrid age group teams and a brief spell in charge of the first team after Xabi Alonso’s sacking last season. As such, his appointment by Fulham felt like a gamble.
So too does Arbeloa’s decision to criticise his players so openly after defeat at Sunderland.
‘We need to realise we are Fulham and if we want to win games we must show more fight and attitude,’ said Arbeloa.
Fulham’s previous manager Marco Silva could be free with his opinions too. The difference is that Silva had five years of progress at Craven Cottage to back him up.
LOST IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP
After their relegation last season, West Ham have been asset stripped. This is what happens when Premier League status is withdrawn.
Mateus Fernandes, Crycensio Summerville and El Hadji Malick Diouf have been sold for decent money while Callum Wilson, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Adama Traore have also moved on.
Why, though, has there been no move for Jarrod Bowen?
The 29-year-old England international would improve any squad in the Premier League yet is seemingly stuck in a team that drew 1-1 at Watford on Saturday.
It’s strange.
TIGERS HAVE A FORMULA
Still in the EFL, League One Leicester are still to win but manager Russell Martin said his team had been ‘just a goal short of being really brilliant’ which suggests he still hasn’t learned the lessons of his disastrous attempts to play the beautiful game in the Premier League with Southampton. Martin was sacked after losing thirteen of sixteen games two years ago.
Since then Sunderland have provided some kind of template of how to survive a first season in the Premier League. Last year Regis le Bris’s team played to their compact and organised strengths to finish in the European places and now it seems Hull are attempting to do it the same way.
It is likely to be a long, tough season for a team that came up via the play-offs but two opening wins against Manchester United and Coventry have provided enough evidence of how Hull’s Croatian coach Sergej Jakirovic will ask his team to play.
They arguably have an inferior squad than the two clubs promoted ahead of them – Coventry and Ipswich – but seem a step ahead in terms of how to cope in their new environment.
Hull had just 28 per cent of the ball against United and 31 per cent at Coventry and that’s exactly how they like it.
The Premier League graveyard is full of teams who have tried to pass their way to survival.
Hull City have shown they have a formula to secure results in the Premier League this season
DAVIS BETTER THIS TIME ROUND
Ipswich learned some hard lessons in the top-flight two years ago and nobody more than left back Leif Davis.
The Geordie came into the Premier League with a growing reputation in 2024 but was ruined by Mo Salah in a day one defeat at home to Liverpool and never really recovered.
But two years of work by Kieran McKenna – the manager who left after securing promotion for the second time last season – was in evidence at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Ipswich took a bit of a pounding by United in the end but the improvement in Davis was clear. The way he took his goal was particularly impressive.
THE WORST RULE IN FOOTBALL
When is handball no longer handball? Does anybody know? I look forward to a Howard Webb appearance on TV trying to explain it – and failing.
