Per reports, Chelsea are still anticipating Liam Delap to move on before the transfer window closes next month. The 23-year-old centre-forward reportedly wants to remain in west London and fight for his spot, but the club’s hierarchy seems to be totally unfazed by that stubbornness.
His reluctance to surrender is comprehensible given the ignominy of a wretched maiden campaign at Stamford Bridge. Delap signed for the Blues in June 2025 from Ipswich Town for £30 million, triggering a release clause, and signed a lucrative deal until 2031. He struggled with a hamstring injury that sidelined him for around the 10-week mark and managed only one Premier League goal.
The Englishman’s predicament has been exacerbated by an attacking department of almost absurd congestion under Xabi Alonso. Joao Pedro remains first choice, but Delap has been pushed further down a punishing pecking order with the arrival of Danny Welbeck from Brighton, as well as Nicolas Jackson, Emmanuel Emegha and Marc Guiu. Significantly, he was left out of the squad altogether for Chelsea’s final pre-season friendly against Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge.
Mercifully, there is still strong, geographically diverse interest in a striker with his physical profile. Everton, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur have all been credibly linked, while the likes of Como and Fiorentina represent the continental alternative he seems disinclined to entertain. Chelsea meanwhile are asking between £40 million and £50 million for any permanent exit before the deadline in September.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink advises Liam Delap to concentrate on playing regular football
Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has urged the out-of-favour forward to get out of the Bridge and play regular minutes elsewhere. The Dutchman, who scored prolifically during his own time in West London, feels stagnation poses the biggest threat to a career still in its infancy.
Hasselbaink’s diagnosis is less of a technical deficiency and more of the corrosive psychological toll of constant marginalisation. Delap, he argues, has been playing under duress, without the managerial reassurance which allows a young striker to express himself without inhibition. He told WhoScored’s The State of Play podcast:
“He needs football. He can’t have another season like he had at Chelsea. If that means he needs to go out on loan, he needs to do it, because he’s too young to sit on the bench.”
Hasselbaink added:
“He needs to kickstart his career again, score goals, and get that feeling back because every time he played for Chelsea, it felt a little bit like he was up against it. He needs to get the confidence of the manager that says, ‘Don’t worry with the first or second, just go and play’. I think he can be a top-four club kind of striker, but he needs games.”