Delap was a breakout star in his first-ever season as a starter in the top tier, bagging 12 goals and leaving a trail of bullied defenders in his wrecking ball wake.
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But it emerged that he had a £30m relegation release clause in his contract, with a host of top clubs duly lining up to sign him after the Blues were consigned back to the Championship.
Chelsea were ultimately the club he chose, and he signed for them on June 4th before flying out to play in the FIFA Club World Club in America.
Speaking to Jim White and Simon Jordan on talkSPORT, Ashton was asked if Delap was always going to leave Town this summer.
Liam Delap was a breakout star in the Premier LeagueLiam Delap was a breakout star in the Premier League (Image: Ross Halls) “I think the reality is yes," the Town chief admitted. "Simon’s run clubs before, he’ll understand this.
“When you’re relegated, the reality is that it doesn’t matter how much cash you have, you have FFP rules that you’ve got to hit, so you’ve got to sell some players.
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“Our recruitment policy was to recruit young, hungry, predominantly English talent, that could grow in value.
“And we made a really good profit on Liam inside of 11 months, but the reality was that a young English striker who had done so well in the Premier League in his first season was always going to be in demand.
“So the reality was that we knew for a while that he was going to move, and Chelsea was his final destination.”
In an exclusive interview with Stuart Watson at the end of the season, Ashton said agreeing to the relegation release clause in Delap's deal, when signing him for £15m from Manchester City, had been a case of 'take it or leave it.'
He told us: "Let's be really clear, when you are signing players from a Premier League football club as a newly-promoted Premier League football club, young or old, they're very nervous about being stuck in a Championship club. Because the stats show that newly promoted clubs often go straight back down. So the contracts are always heavily negotiated.
"The reality is that when there’s a high profile player who is wanted by several clubs you get presented with a term sheet – ‘those are the terms for the club’ and ‘those are the terms for the player’.
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"You're told, 'If you want to talk to the player and give your pitch to sign him you have to agree to those terms because if you don't then there are six other clubs who will agree'. We speak to other clubs, we know the market, so we know that that's not lies.
"So there is very little to negotiate. You're taking it or you're leaving it.
"At that point, our relations allow us to nibble around the edges of those agreements, to bend and twist them, so we get the best version of it.
"That’s just fact. That’s just the reality of where you are. You've gone from being a big fish in a small to medium pond, to being a big fish in the Atlantic Ocean."