Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign striker Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea, who is set to replace Ollie Watkins as he heads to Al Hilal.
According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Villa have agreed a deal worth up to £65million with Chelsea for Jackson. They will pay an initial £47.5million, with the rest of the package made up by £17.5m in add-ons.
Jackson is set to fill the void by Watkins, for whom Al Hilal are finalising 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 depart the club.
Villa have also seen Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne leave in what has been a difficult summer for Unai Emery’s side.
In Watkins, they will be losing a player who has scored 108 goals in 278 games since joining from Brentford in 2020.
Watkins was not in the squad for Villa’s dreadful 4-0 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion in their Premier League opener, with Emery cutting a very frustrated figure as he neglected to explain his absence.
The 30-year-old later apologised and returned to training, but it is clear he has now played his last game for the club.
Jackson was surplus to requirements at Chelsea, having spent last season on loan at Bayern Munich.
The Senegal international scored 11 goals in 34 games for Bayern, where he won the Bundesliga title and DFB-Pokal. 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 line for the Blues.
With Emery having a reputation for getting the best out of players, he will hope to succeed where Chelsea failed in helping Jackson find that consistency. In Watkins, Jackson has a tough act to follow and, if the transfer is finalised in time, he could make his debut against champions Arsenal on Monday.
