Villa’s Chelsea Raid Landed Two Attackers, Lost a Keeper

Aston Villa’s planned £100m raid on Chelsea ended with Alejandro Garnacho and Nicolas Jackson, and with Emiliano Martinez going the other way. The two defenders named in that same shopping list never reached Villa Park. Benoit Badiashile left for Napoli and Axel Disasi joined Crystal Palace, both on loan, while Unai Emery’s club paid a record fee for a striker Chelsea had already decided to sell.

The window closed on 1 September 2026 with four completed deals between the clubs, not three arrivals. Villa got the attackers Emery had chased. Chelsea got Morgan Rogers for £117m ($156.4m) and then took Villa’s World Cup keeper for £7.5m.

The Raid Stopped at Two Attackers

The original brief was a three-man lift from Stamford Bridge: Garnacho, Jackson, and one of Badiashile or Disasi. Only the front two signed. The centre-backs went to other leagues and other London postcodes, and the money that did change hands did not match the old Chelsea book values that made the £100m figure look tidy.

Jackson arrived as a replacement after Villa agreed a £50m sale of Ollie Watkins to Al Hilal, not as extra firepower beside him. That switch changed the raid from a depth shop into a record buy. Garnacho had already been parked on a loan that Chelsea expect to become a sale.

THE ORIGINAL CHELSEA TARGETS

• Alejandro Garnacho: Joined Villa on 23 July 2026 on a season-long loan that becomes permanent if appearance conditions are met, at Chelsea’s £43m valuation.
• Nicolas Jackson: Joined permanently on 28 August 2026 for £47.5m up front, with add-ons that take the package to a club-record £65m.
• Badiashile and Disasi: Villa enquired, then stepped back. Badiashile joined Napoli on 22 August; Disasi joined Crystal Palace on 26 August, both on loan.

Chelsea also moved Trevoh Chalobah to Como, another name that had sat on the edge of Villa’s defensive trawl. By the time Jackson’s medical was under way, the raid had narrowed to the two forwards Emery actually wanted to coach.

Garnacho’s Loan Is Built to Become a Sale

Villa confirmed the signing of Alejandro Garnacho from Chelsea on 23 July, two days after Rogers had gone the other way. The 22-year-old Argentina winger arrived after Johan Manzambi and João Gomes, and he will wear the No. 17 shirt Donyell Malen left behind.

Chelsea’s own note described a season-long loan with an obligation to make the move permanent next summer if set criteria are met. The exact appearance thresholds were not published. Chelsea have said those terms are easy to reach and that they will get their original £43m valuation. Garnacho has already agreed a four-year contract at Villa Park that starts if the clause trips.

That structure is a loan built around the Rogers windfall rather than a straight cheque written the week Villa cashed the British-record sale. It also recycles Chelsea’s own record fee path, because Chelsea had signed Garnacho from Manchester United only last September for £40m and then decided, under new head coach Xabi Alonso, that they could not promise him a starting place.

He scored eight goals and registered four assists in 43 games for Chelsea, but only one of those goals came in the Premier League (one goal and four assists in 24 league matches). Geovany Quenda’s arrival from Sporting, on top of Rogers, pushed him further down the left side. Garnacho stayed away from the start of Chelsea’s pre-season so a move could be finished. Roma and Napoli were told he had already committed to Emery.

Emery called him talented and young and said the winger had shown a wish to help the project. Garnacho said he had been looking for a club that would give him the confidence he had in his first years at United, and that a conversation with Emery is why he came. He was in Argentina’s 55-man preliminary World Cup group and did not make the final cut. The buy clause now hangs on the minutes he has to win in a squad heading back into the Champions League.

Jackson Becomes Villa’s Record Buy From Chelsea

Jackson’s move, confirmed on 28 August, is the expensive half of the raid. Villa will pay £47.5m up front, with £17.5m in add-ons that take the package to £65m, a club record that overtook the £59.5m outlay on Manzambi earlier in the same window. Terms at Villa Park run for five years, to June 2031.

Chelsea bought him from Villarreal in 2023 for £32m. He scored 30 goals in 81 appearances, helped win the Conference League and the Club World Cup, then spent 2025-26 on loan at Bayern Munich (11 goals, a Bundesliga title and the German Cup). Joao Pedro is the preferred No. 9 at Stamford Bridge. Liam Delap was sold to Nottingham Forest. Alonso’s staff trained Jackson away from the main group before the sale.

The football reason sits with Emery. Jackson scored 12 goals in 26 league matches for Villarreal in 2022-23 under the same coach, and Villa had held an interest through more than one window. In his first club interview he said Emery had been a big factor when he arrived in Spain, still asks about his family, and developed him at Villarreal.

I want to score a lot of goals for the team as well. Hopefully we can achieve that and win some trophies. I will bring my spirit, fighting for the badge, fighting for the coach, as I always do.

Nicolas Jackson, Aston Villa striker, club interview

He also said he had been looking forward to joining for a few years. That line matches the long chase better than the late-August timing. Atletico Madrid wanted him too and could not match Villa’s offer. If the add-ons land, Chelsea more than double the £32m they paid Villarreal. The guaranteed slice is still a clear profit on a forward they had already loaned to Bavaria.

Badiashile and Disasi Left for Italy and Palace

The defensive half of the £100m pitch never closed. Chelsea had signed Badiashile from Monaco in January 2023 for £35m. He made 71 appearances, then only 16 games last season through injury, and was not in Alonso’s working group. Napoli completed a season-long loan on 22 August: a £2.6m loan fee, up to £850,000 in bonuses, and a £23.1m option to buy next summer, a step down from Chelsea’s earlier £30m ask.

Disasi, signed from Monaco for £38.8m, has not played for Chelsea’s first team since a short cameo against Wolves in January 2025. He made 61 Chelsea appearances, spent the second half of 2024-25 on loan at Villa, then went to West Ham, who were relegated. Palace took him on 26 August on a season-long loan with no option or obligation to buy. Chelsea had wanted £25m for a permanent sale.

Villa had asked about both, and about Tosin Adarabioyo. Once Jackson became the priority, and once Taylor Harwood-Bellis arrived from Southampton, the centre-back enquiries cooled. Palace were already in the market after selling Maxence Lacroix to Chelsea. The raid’s third leg left the building without a Villa contract attached.

Chelsea Took Villa’s Goalkeeper the Other Way

Martinez joined Chelsea on 30 August for £7.5m on a three-year contract. He made 256 appearances after signing from Arsenal in 2020, kept 80 clean sheets, and was in goal when Villa won the Europa League in May. Villa had already signed Japan international Zion Suzuki from Parma for about £30m and were ready to sell. A Juventus move collapsed earlier in August. Robert Sanchez’s mistakes in Chelsea’s 3-2 opening win at Fulham accelerated the late run at a 33-year-old who had been trying to leave Villa for two summers.

Count the four completed sales and loans and the raid looks less like a one-way lift.

THE SUMMER TRAFFIC BETWEEN THE CLUBS

A popular reading added Jackson’s £65m, a rounded £45m for Garnacho, and Martinez’s £7.5m, then treated the £117.5m total as a clean offset of the Rogers fee. That sum only appears if Garnacho is priced at £45m rather than £43m, and if Martinez is counted as Villa spending. He was a sale. Jackson plus Garnacho at the published figures is £108m, and only if every add-on and the appearance clause both land. The cash Villa actually received from Chelsea this summer is Rogers plus Martinez, £124.5m, against a guaranteed Jackson outlay of £47.5m and a Garnacho bill that sits in next year’s accounts if he plays enough.

Why Villa and Chelsea Keep Trading Players

Martinez was the eighth deal between the clubs in four years. No two Premier League clubs have exchanged more players, on permanent or loan deals, since summer 2022 among the 15 sides who stayed in the top flight throughout, a count that puts Chelsea and Villa in a tie with Chelsea and Brighton. Chelsea feature in six of the ten busiest pairings in that set.

THE TRADING RECORD SINCE 2022

• Eight deals: Carney Chukwuemeka, Omari Kellyman, Rogers and Martinez went to Chelsea; Ian Maatsen, a Disasi loan, Garnacho and Jackson went to Villa.
• Chelsea have paid Villa £163.5m for players in that span, a total that is Chukwuemeka £20m, Kellyman £19m, Rogers £117m and Martinez £7.5m.
• Villa have spent £102.5m on Chelsea players, a figure that rises if Garnacho’s obligation is triggered at the £43m valuation Chelsea expect to collect.
• Owners still talk: Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali and Villa owner Nassef Sawiris have dealt directly across several windows, including the Rogers sale.

Uefa can look at transfers completed between the same clubs inside a 45-day period. Garnacho’s loan came two days after Rogers. Jackson’s permanent move went through 38 days after Rogers, still inside that window. A timeline is not proof the deals were linked, and there is no finding that either club broke the rules. Other Premier League executives have still asked about the frequency, at a moment when both clubs are working under domestic and European spending limits.

Emery rejected the idea that the traffic means the clubs are friendly. He said the relationship runs through money and players, not goodwill, and that he was happy for Martinez and Rogers as people while he was not happy for Chelsea.

Good relations? They want to kill us and we want to kill them! We have good players and we can sign one player off them, it’s not a good relationship, it’s a deal for money and a deal for players.

Unai Emery, Aston Villa head coach

That is the raid in the tense he actually used. Villa took two Chelsea attackers Emery already knew how he wanted to use. Chelsea took the one Villa player they needed in late August, at a tenth of the Rogers fee, and sold Jackson at a profit. Badiashile is in Naples. Disasi is at Palace. Garnacho still has to play the games that turn a loan into a £43m sale.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Happens if Garnacho’s Appearance Clause Is Met?

The move becomes a permanent transfer next summer and his pre-agreed four-year Villa contract begins. Neither club has published the exact appearance number. Chelsea have said the bar is easy to clear, which is why they book it against a £43m valuation rather than as a pure loan.

How Long Is Nicolas Jackson’s Aston Villa Contract?

He has signed through June 2031, a five-year stay that outlasts the typical Premier League striker cycle and runs longer than the eight-year Chelsea deal he left. The length is the tell that Villa are buying him as Watkins’ successor, not as a short let.

Did Axel Disasi Already Play for Aston Villa?

Yes. He made 10 appearances during a loan in the second half of 2024-25, then went to West Ham, then on to Palace. That earlier spell is why Villa’s fresh enquiry this summer was a reunion test, not a first look, and why stepping away for Jackson was a choice rather than a scouting miss.

Do Manchester United Receive Money From the Garnacho Deal?

United sold him to Chelsea last September with a 10 percent sell-on on any eventual transfer fee. If Villa’s obligation is triggered, that cut is due on the onward sale from Chelsea, not on the loan itself. The precise cash to Old Trafford has not been published by either selling club.