Exclusive on Chelsea’s transfer plans make tactical idea clear, with £42m man still favourite | OneFootball

Our writer Simon Phillips has an interesting exclusive up on his Substack today running the rule over Chelsea’s striker options for this summer.

There are 5 names he picks out. Benjamin Sesko has already been contacted via his agent, and given he has a £42m release clause it looks very likely he is our top target.

Victor Osimhen is probably the dream option, but given he’s likely to be very expensive and there’s a lot of competition to sign him, he feels less likely than ever now.

Ivan Toney is possibly a little too old, and his poor season since coming back from a ban make Brentford’s asking price look steep.

Phillips also mentions Tammy Abraham and Dusan Vlahovic, although there’s a definite sense these are the third tier of options if those first three players aren’t available.

What comes next

Well there are the updates – what can we learn from them?

Well what is very clear is what these players have in common, and from that we can start to infer what our plans are. Some of these rumours sound very likely, some very unlikely. But all the players mentioned are vaguely in the same mold.

All are big, tall, powerful strikers. So any idea that we’ll be looking to use Christopher Nkunku as a lone striker next year and perhaps rotate him with other false 9 options (say if we went for Dani Olmo of RB Leipzig) look far fetched now.

Jackson is maybe not a target man, but he’s big and strong enough to lead the line, and these other options would compete with him in that role. As Phillips mentions in his piece, we’ve seen Jackson do well wide left, so there’s a chance that could happen more regularly next season too, if a good striker has come in.