You would expect most players who are currently top scorers at their respective football clubs this season to be rather content and full of confidence right now.
With 10 goals from 17 appearances, Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku sits above Cole Palmer (seven) and Nicolas Jackson (six) in the club’s goalscoring charts. He stands a chance to end the 2024-25 campaign as the team’s most prolific finisher.
Yet during the international break, a story emerged in French newspaper L’Equipe, which was subsequently followed up by the Telegraph in the UK, that the 27-year-old is considering his future at Stamford Bridge.
Signs of discontent seem somewhat premature, given Nkunku is just three months into his second season at the club. The season may last until mid-July if Chelsea reach the final of the expanded Club World Cup next summer. Do Chelsea have any reason to be concerned? It is a complex situation which provides an answer of yes… and no.
First — is there any truth to Nkunku’s feeling unsettled at the club? A source close to the player, speaking under the condition of anonymity to The Athletic to protect relationships, did suggest the forward is not too happy with how things are going right now.
It should be pointed out that the source also insisted that Nkunku has not made any complaints himself to the club. So this is not a case of the 27-year-old looking to hand in a transfer request or trying to cause a problem for head coach Enzo Maresca.
However, you can understand why Nkunku might be troubled. After playing the most minutes of any Chelsea player in pre-season, Nkunku has started just one Premier League game under Maresca. That was in the opening match versus Manchester City three months ago. Yet one of the reasons he featured so much in friendly games was because Palmer was given an extended holiday after playing for England at Euro 2024 and Jackson took a while to recover from an ankle injury sustained on international duty with Senegal in June.
Nkunku had every right to speak optimistically about what 2024-25 could bring. The France international’s debut season at Chelsea was hindered by knee, hip and hamstring injuries. He played for just 516 minutes (not including added time), scoring three goals in 14 appearances. After completing a move from RB Leipzig for a fee in excess of €60million in 2023, he would have hoped to make a much bigger impact.
The transfer, which was actually finalised in October 2022, was heralded as a major coup for Chelsea at the time and rightly so. Nkunku scored 35 goals and made 20 assists in 52 appearances for RB Leipzig in 2021-22. Despite suffering a knee injury which caused him to miss the last World Cup, he still managed to record a further 23 goals and nine assists from 36 appearances in 2022-23. He was clearly a player of some talent and showed it in his first pre-season with Chelsea (three goals) before sustaining another bad knee injury in the last friendly against Borussia Dortmund.
After proving his fitness and scoring three times during his second pre-season at Chelsea under new head coach Maresca, Nkunku was determined to prove what he can do. He told Chelsea’s official website in August: “For me, this is my first season in Chelsea FC, for sure. To be honest, I don’t have the feeling I had a first season here. It was very difficult.
“When a player misses one season, he is very hungry. I am very hungry. My goal this season is to play and to be confident. I know if I am happy and confident in my body, I can show what I am able to do.”
And herein lies the problem. According to Transfermarkt, of the 688 minutes Nkunku has had this season, only 154 have been in the Premier League and 58 of those came in that first match versus Manchester City. His nine appearances as a substitute work out as an average of under 11 minutes a game (not including added time) meaning he is also getting little chance to change a match from the bench. This includes coming on with just a few minutes to go in Chelsea’s last fixture against Arsenal — when the score was 1-1. You would think the home side would have a better chance of getting a winner with him on the pitch for a longer period than that.
Still, Maresca and Chelsea can argue that Nkunku is just an unfortunate victim of players simply being in better form. With Maresca wanting to use two natural wingers in a 4-2-3-1 formation, it really leaves only a couple of positions for Nkunku to be considered — as a No 10 or the main striker. But those spots are occupied by Palmer (seven goals and five assists in 13 appearances) and Jackson (six goals and three assists in 12 appearances). Palmer is one of the best in the Premier League, while Chelsea regard Jackson as one of the top three centre-forwards in England’s top division. They are both very hard to drop at the moment.
Nkunku’s aims in joining Chelsea ahead of other interested clubs were to play regularly and compete in the Champions League. This is the second season in a row where Chelsea are not involved in the Champions League and the vast majority of his starts under Maresca (six) have come in the Conference League, Europe’s third-tier competition. Combined with the two starts in the Carabao Cup, which Chelsea are no longer in following a loss to Newcastle, Nkunku is being sent a message by Maresca that he is only considered for the less important matches.
After Nkunku scored twice against FC Noah in an 8-0 victory earlier this month, Maresca admitted regret over the situation: “I feel shame for Christo because in pre-season, he was our best player.”
Chelsea still regard Nkunku as an important member of the squad and with so many matches remaining, believe there are plenty of opportunities for him to make his mark. For example, Saturday’s game at Leicester begins a run of 11 fixtures in 38 days. Squad rotation will be a must, plus injuries or a drop in performance could happen to Palmer or Jackson at any point.
The club might also expect Nkunku, who is among the top seven highest-paid players at Stamford Bridge, to be a little patient given he was barely available for selection in 2022-23, even if it was through no fault of his own.
There is another issue to cause Nkunku some angst, though. Having missed the last World Cup, Nkunku is desperate to be part of the France squad for the qualifiers. Assuming they progress, he wants to be at the 2026 tournament itself. France coach Didier Deschamps is a big admirer and sees him as someone who can help fill the void left by the now-retired Antoine Griezmann.
Nkunku has won four caps in the last two international breaks, which includes starts in the wins against Israel and Italy. But he’s aware of the competition for places and knows he needs to be playing regularly at club level to keep his place.
So what happens next? While it cannot be ruled out completely, a transfer in January seems unlikely. Firstly, Chelsea do not want to sell. It would take an extraordinary offer, perhaps in excess of what they paid for him, to make them think about changing their minds. Nkunku still has over three years left on his contract. Neither the player nor the club will consider a loan.
Then there is the matter of where he could go. One of his former clubs Paris Saint-Germain have been linked with him regularly back in France and Nkunku did not exactly rule it out when asked about it by French TV show Telefoot in October. “I don’t know what to say about that,” he said. “PSG is still a big club. Any approach this summer? No, no, no. I’ve always said there was no approach.”
That remains the case and Chelsea have had no enquiries from PSG either. But PSG are annual participants in the Champions League and Nkunku is the kind of player that coach Luis Enrique would like. They have scored only three times in four Champions League group games. In saying that, a source, speaking anonymously, doubted whether they can afford him in January.
Manchester United have also been mentioned as a possibility, with suggestions his name came up during talks between the two clubs last summer. But unless money is raised from outgoings, they are not expected to have the funds to make a sizeable bid when the window opens in the new year. A switch to the Saudi Pro League is not an option for Nkunku either.
So as things stand, the earliest Nkunku can leave will be in the summer — by which time Chelsea could have secured a spot in the Champions League and he might have played a lot more. That could make all this talk of disquiet a thing of the past.
(Top photo: Ed Sykes/Getty Images)
