Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign striker Nicholas Jackson from Chelsea, who is set to replace Ollie Watkins as he heads to Al Hilal.
according to Athlete David OrnsteinVilla agreed a deal worth up to 65 million pounds with Chelsea for Jackson. They will pay an initial sum of £47.5m, with the rest of the package made up by £17.5m in add-ons.
Jackson is set to fill the void by Watkins, with Al Hilal finalizing a £50m deal with Villa.
Watkins will become the latest key member of the Villa side that won the Europa League and finished fourth last season to leave the club.
Villa also saw the departures of Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne in what has been a difficult summer for Unai Emery’s side.
In Watkins, they will lose a player who has scored 108 goals in 278 appearances since joining from Brentford in 2020.
Watkins was not in the squad for Villa’s horrific 4-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in their Premier League opener, with Emery looking extremely frustrated as he neglected to explain his absence.
The 30-year-old later apologized and returned to training, but has now clearly played his last game for the club.
Jackson was surplus to Chelsea’s requirements, having spent last season on loan at Bayern Munich.
The Senegalese international scored 11 goals in 34 appearances for Bayern, where he won the Bundesliga title and the German Cup. He had previously scored 30 goals in 81 appearances for Chelsea, with Jackson proving too inconsistent in front of goal to be trusted to lead the Blues’ line.
Given Emery’s reputation for getting the best out of players, he will hope to succeed where Chelsea have failed to help Jackson achieve that consistency. In Watkins, Jackson has a tough task to follow and, if the transfer is completed in time, he could make his debut against champions Arsenal on Monday.
