Inside Chelsea's day of transfer chaos as Fulham moment changes everything for Nicolas Jackson

Nicolas Jackson's loan move to Bayern Munich has been scrapped (Image: Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos)

There was less than an hour between Enzo Maresca concluding his post-match press conference after Chelsea 's win over Fulham and the club deciding to pull the plug on a deal that had been agreed earlier in the day.

The Blues and Bayern Munich had agreed a deal to see Nicolas Jackson move to the Allianz Arena on a season-long loan. The 24-year-old would be moving to the German champions, who in turn would pay Chelsea £12.97million as a straight loan fee. If they decided at the end of the season they wanted to make the deal permanent, then there was a £56.2million option to buy the Senegal striker .

Then, hours later, Chelsea entertained Fulham, their west London neighbours, at Stamford Bridge. Maresca went with an unchanged side after being left impressed by his team’s showing eight days prior at the London Stadium. New signings Joao Pedro and Liam Delap both started, with the former in the No.10 role and the latter in the No.9.

However, that lasted just 15 minutes. Delap chased down a ball on the left-hand side and pulled up, clutching his hamstring. Fulham supporters chanted, "what a waste of money”" at the £30million signing - which seemed incredibly harsh - as Delap fell to the floor. Immediately, Maresca sent Tyrique George and Jamie Gittens to warm up as he pondered in his mind just what to do.

George got the nod in what was - to much surprise - a direct swap. The 19-year-old, who could well have played his final game for Chelsea with AS Roma interested in signing the Cobham graduate before Monday’s deadline, is traditionally a winger, but he has played the odd game as a false nine.

The fact George was put there emphasised Chelsea’s lack of options in the central striker role. Joao Pedro was in the No.10 and he stayed there - and ended up scoring his fifth goal in as many competitive starts - while George was the makeshift No.9. Which, of course, prompted a question to Maresca post-match about the situation.

First of all, the Chelsea head coach confirmed Delap would be out for "weeks" because of the nature of the injury: "Liam's injury doesn't look good in terms of, he was full speed, hamstring, so that required, like always, weeks. And then in terms of another striker, to be honest, we just finished the game from the changing room and came here for the press conference, so now after, when we finish, we're going to sit and we'll see if we take any decision. That's all."

Then asked if he enough options up front , and whether the club could cancel Jackson’s loan agreement, the Italian replied: “When you have two strikers, it's enough. When one of them is injured for different weeks, probably it's not enough. Today we played more than one hour with Tyrique, and he did brilliant.

"The last game he played as a No.9 was Man United at home last year. Again, we try to use a different solution. If you remember last year, we used Pedro [Neto] in some games as a No.9. It's because we are always looking for a solution, but for sure when you have two proper No.9s, it's enough."

Maresca added : "I just said, finish the game, come here, no idea [whether Jackson’s loan could be cancelled]. We're going to sit now and we'll see. Serious, honest, I don't have any idea."

So off Maresca went to sit down with Chelsea's chiefs to discuss what to do. Maresca's focus prior would have been on the game at hand, but the club's transfer team will have had most of the first-half, the half-time break, and the entirety of the second period to discuss the plan of action.

Which was, as we know now, to cancel Jackson's loan. The Senegalese forward informed Chelsea a few weeks ago of his desire to explore his options given the arrivals of Joao Pedro and Delap.

The Blues had given Jackson permission to fly to Munich to finalise his move and undergo a medical, with his agent Ali Barat brokering what was set to be a lucrative loan transfer. Jackson had been pictured arriving at Munich airport, exiting a van with his associates; all smiles as he looked to complete his move.

However, Chelsea, with everything that happened during the game, then rang Bayern to inform them they would no longer be proceeding with the loan deal . As such, Jackson no longer had permission to take his medical in Munich. From the player’s point of view, there is of course frustration with how things panned out.

Jackson, however, is under contract at Chelsea and is required to fly back to London. The striker, signed from Villarreal in 2023 for around £30million, had been training with the first team at the club’s headquarters in Cobham prior to the deal with Bayern just in case he did end up staying beyond Monday’s transfer deadline.

Chelsea were never actively trying to offload Jackson but as soon as the forward made clear his desire of leaving the club, they would not stand in his way either. It looks as if - unless anything drastic happens, which one would be brave to rule out given the goings-on in the last 24 hours - Jackson will stay at Stamford Bridge. At least until January.