Jackson Returning, Emegha Arriving: What Next in Chelsea’s Forward Farce?

The Forward Farce Continues: Who Stays and Who Goes for Chelsea in Summer?

Only those who have been living under a rock could possibly have missed the fact that Chelsea are suffering from an ongoing “number 9 curse”. All of Hernan Crespo, Fernando Torres, Alvaro Morata, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with more besides, have donned the infamous number nine shirt, and all failed to match expectations in West London.

What started as something of a joke has turned into a real-life malediction, a stain upon the image of a club that has both welcomed ridicule and hindered the Blues' relentless pursuit of silverware and success.

Those names above may be long gone, but it seems the curse still persists – signed for £30 million in the summer, former Manchester City youth graduate Liam Delap has illustrated that youth and promise do not equate to breaking the curse – in fact, his figures of three goals in 30 games may just be the worst of the lot.

🔵🚨 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐙𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐆𝐇𝐀 𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆! 🇫🇷👀

Emegha hits the target 63.6% of shots and Jackson 55.5%

Rosenior is a fan of Emegha🌟pic.twitter.com/Et52t3VIuS

— The Stat Guy (@The_Stat_Guy_10) February 17, 2026

And despite Joao Pedro’s excellent form, which has seen him move ahead in the pecking order over Delap, Liam Rosenior has some big decisions to make come summer – with a loaned player returning and an already-confirmed signing joining up, the new coach will suddenly be under pressure to make some difficult choices when the summer transfer window rolls around.

Youth vs Youth

The loan player set to return is 24-year-old Nicolas Jackson, currently at Bayern Munich, Chelsea’s first-choice striker in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, who boasts a record of 30 goals in 81 games for the Blues.

The other player, who Chelsea confirmed would be joining back in September, is 23-year-old Emanuel Emegha, starting striker for the London side's sister club RC Strasbourg. Despite an injury-prone campaign this year, the Dutch forward has still been impressive when fit, netting seven times in just 11 fixtures this season.

Immediately, the problem becomes clear – very much sticking to the recruitment strategy that has been in place since Todd Boehly and his Clearlake consortium came in and took over the club, seniority is not a trait considered noteworthy or necessary when it comes to making a shortlist of transfer targets.

Chelsea’s top 3 for G/A this season all comps..

1). Joao Pedro - 18 G/A
2). Enzo Fernandez - 15 G/A
3). Cole Palmer - 12 G/A pic.twitter.com/1Pxt4V8xaR

— Conn (@ConnCFC) February 13, 2026

Instead, Chelsea obsess over young talents, unknown quantities and potential stars of the future, despite in some cases being faced with a player who has little game time or top-flight experience and thus cannot prove that they can actually handle regular Premier League football.

It is remarkable that Jackson is Chelsea’s oldest striker – Pedro is also 24, while Delap and Emegha are both a year younger – and though all have outstanding physical traits and are clearly talented with the ball at their feet, their severe deficiency in regularly playing up top comes back to bite both them and Chelsea.

Emanuel Emegha’s g/a by season for RC Strasbourg:

23/24 = 31 appearances with 9 goals & 1 assist
24/25 = 29 appearances with 14 goals and 3 assists
25/26 = 11 appearances with 7 goals and 2 assists (injury riddled season)

33 g/a in 71 appearances. pic.twitter.com/ngTfy5ziDc

— ~ (@CFCdruw) February 17, 2026

It means that the London club operate for much of the season chopping and changing between different players at the top of the pitch, while the players who are constantly brought in and out of the starting lineup see their reputations dimmed, with pundits, analysts, and even their own fans deeming them not good enough to lead the line in the English top flight.

Is Liam Rosenior the man to change this repetitive, self-destructive pattern?

How Could Emegha Change How Chelsea Play?

In both Joao Pedro and Nicolas Jackson, Chelsea purchased players who were not in fact out-and-out strikers, and as such were unpredictable on the pitch.

In Nicolas Jackson, they had a rapid runner and excellent dribbler, but also a player whose finishing resulted in groans of despair more often than cheers of delight. In all, he was more villainised than praised by the Stamford Bridge faithful.

Joao Pedro, on the other hand, has become something of a West London legend in the last couple of months – though mightily frustrating at times, his raw Brazilian ability has the potential to take any opponent out of the game, and though not a natural number 9, he has adjusted to the role admirably, netting six goals in his last eight.

But though the Joao Pedro experiment up top may be working wonders for Chelsea right now, the fact that he and the eventually returning Jackson are both stronger elsewhere on the pitch and are viewed so differently by Chelsea fans despite performing largely the same role, is exactly why Emegha’s presence next season will be so vital to Chelsea.

Gone will be the unpredictable nature of the non-strikers Chelsea place up top and the widely ranging views that supporters quickly adopt on such players – in Emegha, Chelsea finally have a predictable player, someone whose role and purpose are immediately clear to the Blues fanbase.

At 195 cm tall, the Dutchman is built for goalscoring and, despite having not yet taken to the pitch for Chelsea, is being likened to club icon Didier Drogba, such are the similarities between their builds and skill sets.

Now, I hear some of you arguing, “So what? Pedro and Jackson aren’t strikers, but Delap is, and he’s been a failure!” A completely fair point, I may add – after all, Delap is only five days Emegha’s junior, so how different will they actually be in terms of their development?

Personally I’ll prefer we take back Nicolas Jackson back at Chelsea send Liam Delap on loan to championship ✍️

Bring back Nicolas Jackson please pic.twitter.com/GVGDLiBVfK

— Ayomiposi✍️ (@jokotagbaposi) February 13, 2026

Well, despite their very similar age, they have vastly different CV’s - Delap only boasts one whole season playing in any top flight, this being last season’s breakthrough campaign with Ipswich. In contrast, Emegha has already gathered six seasons at the top level across the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and now France.

This will give him a vital head start over his strike partners upon arrival at Stamford Bridge – his knowledge and know-how of what it takes to be a regular scorer at the highest level brings him disproportionate experience for a player of such a young age, and if there is one thing that Chelsea have been crying out for, it’s a player with experience.

Emegha’s tall build and physical frame mean that he provides the most physical presence that Chelsea have had on their hands for a good number of years – not since youth product Tammy Abraham was starting up top during the transfer embargo of 2019/20 have Chelsea had a true target man option up top, an option which brings so many different build-up options into play.

Emegha’s arrival at the Bridge has the potential to revolutionise how Chelsea build their attacks – with a true, consistent centre forward, Liam Delap will suddenly struggle to get a regular look-in, while Joao Pedro will be allowed to occupy his favourite spot behind the striker more often.

But what of Nicolas Jackson? Where does the Senegalese international fit in, and can he rival Emegha or any of Chelsea’s forwards for that matter, to retake his spot in the Blues’ first team?

No Action for Jackson?

Well, as of right now, Jackson’s Chelsea future is undecided. Despite putting in the hard yards at the club as they went through a mightily difficult transitional period, Enzo Maresca didn’t see him as the goalscorer Chelsea needed to move forward, and as such, he was loaned out to Bayern Munich in the summer to play backup to Harry Kane.

It was decided very early that despite there being an optional clause to make Jackson's move to Germany permanent, Bayern have absolutely no intention of activating it, something they have been making abundantly clear since as early as October.

As such, Jackson has known that he was destined to return to London at the end of this season, and after a campaign of playing alongside and learning from a striker as brilliant as Harry Kane, he would have been expecting to walk his way straight back into Enzo Maresca’s lineup.

🚨 Nicolas Jackson will return to Chelsea in the summer from Bayern. He's well regarded and appreciated in Italy. He's a name to watch for the Italian market but also the English.

PL clubs are monitoring the situation.

(@FabrizioRomano) #CFC pic.twitter.com/8x56jF2dD9

— Chelsea Dodgers (@TheBlueDodger) February 13, 2026

However, in two ways, this plan has had the rug pulled out from underneath it. Firstly, Enzo Maresca is no longer at the helm – his replacement, Liam Rosenior, is yet to have used Jackson and thus will prefer to keep and use the players he is currently making himself familiar with, rather than re-introducing a player who, under the last manager, was shipped out precisely because he was not what the club was looking for.

Secondly, despite playing for a Bayern side that is currently walking all over the Bundesliga, Jackson has failed to impress in front of goal. Although he has been given a more than fair amount of playing time, featuring 22 times in all competitions, his return has been far from rewarding manager Vincent Kompany – he has netted just five times, less than half of his tally for Chelsea last season.

Having been hyped as a player with extremely high potential, Jackson’s last two campaigns have failed to show any improvement as a player – if anything, they have seen him regress. It’s no wonder that Bayern are looking to shift him at the end of the season.

But in the same vein, it is unlikely that Chelsea wants to keep him. Sure, he had his moments at the club, chief amongst them a hat trick at Spurs in his first season, but in the long run, his inconsistency and lack of development outweigh his dribbling, pace and potential ceiling.

Nicolas Jackson and Chelsea will evaluate their options together in the summer when the 24-year-old striker is due to return from his season-long loan at Bayern Munich.

Chelsea plan to assess the best way forward for everyone at the end of this season, including whether they… pic.twitter.com/vWxSaXgm05

— ChelsTransfer (@ChelsTransfer) February 17, 2026

Rosenior has expressed a desire to offer all current Chelsea players a clean slate on which they can rebuild themselves in his eyes. However, if he is sensible, he will immediately integrate Emegha into the team and sell Jackson while his value is still high.

The circus of Chelsea’s frontline never ends, and no doubt there are more than a couple of unexpected chapters in store for us over the months leading up to summer. However, the reality is Chelsea are on a quest to be taken seriously again, and that can only happen if they sort out what they need and what they don't. Emegha is what they need. Jackson, unfortunately, is not.