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By KIERAN GILL
Published: 12:00 EDT, 2 June 2025 | Updated: 12:00 EDT, 2 June 2025
You do not need to have represented Manchester City to sign for Chelsea but recent history suggests it cannot hurt, with Liam Delap close to becoming the latest addition to a curious connection growing ever stronger with each window.
Before getting to that blossoming City bond at Stamford Bridge, it is worth discussing the KDB Cup, and how Pep Guardiola’s spying of Romeo Lavia in 2018 may have contributed to this £30million signing seven years down the line.
Named after Kevin De Bruyne, it is an international youth tournament which brings together the best Under 15s to give those in attendance a glimpse into the footballing future.
It has been a must-not-miss event for many working in youth circles ever since its creation in 2016 and this year’s edition, held on Saturday and Sunday in Drongen, a sub-municipality of the city of Ghent in Belgium and where De Bruyne was born, was no exception.
Mail Sport was sent a list of the scouts in attendance at the weekend’s KDB Cup. It was 75-strong and included representatives from Arsenal, Bournemouth, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Leeds United, Genk, even one rep from League One Blackpool.
It also listed seven accredited visitors from City, and four from Chelsea. Their own clubs competed but did not lift the trophy this time. On this occasion, it was Barcelona who triumphed, beating Club Brugge 2-1 in the final.
Liam Delap is set to join Chelsea for £30million from Ipswich Town
Delap joined Manchester City's academy in 2019 from Derby and spent five years there
Delap played six times for City's first team before joining Ipswich last summer
As well as Jamal Musiala, Jeremy Doku, Rico Lewis, Eric Garcia, Noni Madueke, Anthony Gordon, Levi Colwill and more who used this Belgian stage to showcase their promise, in 2018 it was the turn of Lavia.
Guardiola happened to be an attendee that year, and he spied the 14-year-old impressing for Anderlecht as they went on to win the KDB Cup.
Lavia joined City from Anderlecht once eligible, on the recommendation of Guardiola, but now? Now, he is with Chelsea, whose supporters have been dubbing him ‘Agent Romeo’.
The suggestion is, amid the £30m chase for Delap, he was the one encouraging his friend and former City youth team-mate to choose Chelsea over all of his other options.
With Chelsea triggering his release clause at Ipswich Town, Delap is set to walk into a changing room containing others who previously wore a lighter shade of blue. As well as Lavia, there is Cole Palmer, Tosin Adarabioyo and Jadon Sancho, the Manchester United loanee with whom Chelsea are currently in talks to keep if personal terms can be agreed.
The City academy contingent could yet be boosted by the arrival of Jamie Gittens, the English Borussia Dortmund winger currently being chased by Chelsea before the Club World Cup gets going in the United States.
They have also been linked with Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, and wanted City’s Nico O’Reilly in the last window, and Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise in the window before that.
Then there is Enzo Maresca, Chelsea’s head coach who was an assistant to Guardiola and worked for City’s academy, with Delap scoring a deluge of goals under him for their development side.
Cole Palmer was an opportunistic signing for Chelsea once his path to first-team action was blocked at City
Romeo Lavia will be team-mates with Delap once again at Stamford Bridge
The former City academy contingent at Chelsea could yet be joined by Dortmund's Jamie Gittens
That link has been key, with Maresca pitching the project to him personally last week. Word is Delap was even told to envisage himself leading the line in Chelsea's system while watching the Conference League final, which they won 4-1 over Real Betis in Wroclaw, Poland, with one source saying the 22-year-old liked what he saw.
Glenn van der Kraan is Chelsea’s academy technical director, having formerly been the head of coaching in City’s youth development system. Stewart Thompson is a first-team scout who was at City, where he worked with Joe Shields, who is now co-director of recruitment and talent at Chelsea.
Shields is known to have a good relationship with Delap and his family, but it would be wrong to simply dismiss Chelsea’s City connection as nepotism.
City are an elite club who offer one of the best upbringings going in the game, with their fledglings taught how to play the philosophy of the first team from the get-go. That is similar to the possession-based style which Maresca has been trying to implement himself.
Breaking into City’s starting lineup is an arduous task for anyone and so graduates leave in search of guaranteed game time. Palmer was one such opportunistic purchase for Chelsea.
Delap will hope he can be the latest Guardiola cast-off to show why he should have never been sold by City. It is believed that the £30m fee – modest by Premier League standards and certainly for a striker – could help ease the pressure on him. It is also hoped that by already knowing Palmer, Lavia and Co, he will not take too long to settle in at Stamford Bridge. We will soon see.