Newcastle considering move to sign “unbelievable” £80m CF

Fair to say, this transfer window has not exactly gone to plan for Newcastle United.

Anthony Elanga has arrived from Nottingham Forest for a reported fee of £55m, which is certainly an exciting addition.

However, now that James Trafford is poised to re-join Manchester City, the Magpies have now missed out on seven key targets, with Hugo Ekitiké, Liam Delap, João Pedro, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Dean Huijsen all choosing to go elsewhere.

There’s also the small matter of their best player, seemingly, going on strike to force through a move, more on that in just a second, hence why Eddie Howe is in the market searching for a striker.

Newcastle’s search for a new striker

As you may have pieced together by now, according to a report by Chris Waugh of the Athletic, Alexander Isak has not travelled with the rest of the squad to Asia for pre-season friendlies in Singapore and Korea Republic.

The club statement claims he is nursing a groin injury, but George Caulkin of the Athletic outlines the Sweden international’s desire to leave and join an ‘elite team’, with a move to Liverpool his preference.

Thus, as they commence their striker search, Craig Hope of the Daily Mail reports that Newcastle have added Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson to their list of targets.

The Blues have already signed both Liam Delap and João Pedro for £30m and £55m respectively this summer, so Matt Law of the Telegraph claims Jackson is available for sale, with Chris Burns of Football.London adding that the Senegalese international is valued at around £80m.

So, could Jackson soon swap West London for the North East?

How Nicolas Jackson would improve Newcastle

Despite often being much maligned, Jackson’s scoring record since joining Chelsea two summers ago is pretty impressive, bagging 30 goals in 81 appearances for the club, including netting both times Newcastle have visited Stamford Bridge in the Premier League.

Former Liverpool and England striker Peter Crouch praised his “unbelievable” performances, while Liam Twomey and Mark Carey of the Athletic document his ‘excellent’ pressing, making him ‘a big part’ of how the team play.

Similarly, Ed Dove of ESPN outlines how the Blues’ form waned while Jackson was injured, praising the striker’s ‘broader contribution… without the ball’ as well as his ‘self-sacrifice and relentless running’, becoming the first Chelsea player to reach double figures for Premier League goals in successive seasons since Didier Drogba.

Should he move to Newcastle, Jackson would be following in the footsteps of a pair of fellow Senegalese strikers who are certainly remembered fondly on Tyneside.

During the 2011/12 season, spearheaded by Papiss Cissé and Demba Ba, the Magpies finished fifth under Alan Pardew, just two years after being promoted from the Championship, and both strikers were on fire.

As the table outlines, 2011/12 remains the only season in which two Newcastle players have scored 13 or more Premier League goals since the heady days of 1996/97, a year the Magpies finished second.

Demba Ba, the more prolific of the duo, was ultimately sold to Chelsea for £7.5m in January 2013, so could Jackson become the reverse Ba?

Well, let’s compare the pair to find out.

As the table outlines, Ba at Newcastle was marginally more prolific than Jackson has been during his time at Chelsea, scoring five more goals in around 600 fewer minutes, albeit the latter has registered more assists; the former certainly did not continue this scoring spree at Stamford Bridge all those years ago!

Nevertheless, in contrast, Jackson, at 24 years old, would surely be primed to have make immediate impact should he arrive at Newcastle, just as Ba did, hence why he should be amongst their top targets, if Isak does indeed get his wish and depart.

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