Unai Emery drops hint over Aston Villa's pursuit of £80m Chelsea star

Unai Emery has been linked with signing one of his former players for Aston Villa (Photo: Getty)

Unai Emery has hinted that Aston Villa may NOT be signing Nicolas Jackson despite strong links with the wantaway Chelsea star.

Jackson had been Chelsea’s first-choice striker since moving to Stamford Bridge in 2023, but his time at the club now appears to be over .

Questions over his finishing and discipline lead Enzo Maresca to sign two new centre-forwards over the summer in Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

With the pair now ahead in the pecking order, Jackson has asked to explore his transfer options, with Maresca also leaving the Senegalese out of his squad for Friday night’s clash at West Ham .

Several clubs have been linked with the 24-year-old, however few seem willing or able to meet Chelsea’s huge £70million valuation.

One of the interested teams is Villa, with Jackson and Emery well-acquainted from their time together at Villarreal, where he made 27 appearances under the Spanish manager.

However, speaking in his press conference ahead of Villa’s clash at Brentford on Saturday, Emery appeared to suggest that he was not in the market for a new striker.

Nicolas Jackson’s Chelsea career is over (Photo: Getty)

‘The club is working hard to get our structure as strong as possible with the players in the squad, trying to get two players for each position,’ the former Arsenal manager said.

‘There is still work to do, maybe even leaving some players more and we will have to sign and complete the squad with some players.

‘We are working and we have some solutions to try to fix it. But we have to be alert, keep going and the players we have now is enough to compete but thinking all season, thinking hopefully we will face more than 50 matches, we will have to get balance players in the squad and add more players to it.’

The statement that he wants two players for each position is especially interested as Villa already have two centre-forward options in the form of Ollie Watkins and Evann Guessand, a £30.5m summer signing from Nice.

This would seem to negate the need to sign Jackson or indeed any other striker unless Watkins were to leave but that seems unlikely before deadline day.

Bayern Munich, Napoli and Newcastle also have an interest in Jackson, with the latter looking at possible replacements for Alexander Isak who is still refusing to play for the club.

The Magpies have had an offer for Yoanne Wissa rejected and the forward has now returned to Brentford training and could well feature against Villa this weekend.

Manchester United and Tottenham had also been linked with Jackson but are no longer in the transfer race as United have signed Benjamin Sesko while Spurs have decided to keep Richarlison.