Jehmy@jehmyE
🚨🔵 Marc Guiu's career took an unfair hit because Nicolas Jackson refused to get on a plane back to Chelsea after Delap's injury.
It all traces back to last September. Liam Delap went down with a hamstring injury against Fulham, right as Jackson had just landed in Munich for a medical, on the verge of completing a loan move to Bayern. Chelsea's instinct was to pull Jackson straight back to London as emergency injury cover instead. Jackson wasn't having it. His agent, Diomansy Kamara, went public with the now-famous line: "The plane doesn't go backwards... Munich." Jackson simply refused to return.
With Jackson digging in and Chelsea needing a striker fast, they explored other routes, an approach for Sporting's Conrad Harder went nowhere as he chose RB Leipzig instead, leaving Chelsea with one real option left: recall Marc Guiu from his Sunderland loan.
Guiu had only just arrived on Wearside with real excitement, playing three games and scoring in the Carabao Cup before the recall cut his spell short after barely three weeks. Chelsea and Sunderland had no recall clause in the deal, but their relationship allowed a termination agreement anyway. Guiu came back to a role as backup, managed limited minutes across the rest of the season, and has struggled to force his way into Alonso's plans since.
The kicker: Bayern eventually improved their offer and got Jackson anyway, just weeks after Guiu had already been yanked back to Chelsea for a move that ultimately still happened. Guiu's momentum was sacrificed for a transfer saga that resolved itself regardless.
Did Jackson's stand-off genuinely derail a promising young striker's development for nothing?
