Darren Bent has picked out one Chelsea star as his one to watch in the Premier League next season, insisting that he has high hopes for him with the right coaching.
There looks to be a question mark over Chelsea once again. Despite the Blues ending this past campaign with a brilliant run of form, Mauricio Pochettino left Stamford Bridge in May, with Enzo Maresca seemingly set to replace him.
The worry will be that they have thrown away some of the progress they made in the second-half of the season. But the squad definitely does have a lot of talent which should make Maresca’s life a lot easier as he makes the move from Leicester City.
Obviously, Cole Palmer was the standout performer this past season, but there is a lot of potential within the ranks, including Nicolas Jackson.
Darren Bent picks Chelsea player as his one to watch next season
Jackson has come in for a lot of criticism since arriving at Chelsea. But he has still managed to score 14 league goals for the club.
And speaking on talkSPORT, Darren Bent picked out the £30 million Senegalese as his one to watch in the Premier League next year.
“I’ve gone for someone who divides opinion, I’ve gone for Nicolas Jackson. People say he’s had a bad season; he’s got 14 goals. That’s not bad, that,” he said.
“I think next season, with the right coaching, the right system, yeah, I think he could be decent.”
Nicolas Jackson is now one of the Premier League’s most valuable players
Jackson has missed a lot of good chances for the Blues since his arrival, but it does appear that there is so much more to come from the 22-year-old.
In fact, Jackson’s value has now almost tripled to £84 million according to the CIES Football Observatory, with the forward now the 19th most valuable player across the entire division.
Of course, that feels incredibly difficult to agree with right now, but it is encouraging that he has scored 14 times in what seemed to be such an underwhelming season.
Chelsea do have a squad which should continue to grow and develop in the next few years, and Jackson is one of those nowhere near the peak of his powers.
Bent clearly thinks Jackson is going to shut a lot of people up over the next 12 months.