It seems like a show of faith and expectation from Chelsea that they are handing Liam Delap the number 9 shirt but it is a safe bet that he didn't call up Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink before he said yes.
It is definitely a show of the place that Stoke City has in Delap Jr's heart that when he was asked to wear the Potters' number 17 shirt when he joined on loan just under three years ago, he did first make a call for permission.
The striker sent a message to Stoke legend and family friend Ryan Shawcross, who had worn 17 for the best part of the previous 15 years, including all those games when a young Delap was in the stands or even mascot.
That was the summer of 2022 and Delap had his pick of clubs to join as he prepared for his first taste of senior football on loan away from Manchester City. Stoke had to work furiously to get to the front of Man City's queue but, if the decision was down to the player, it was a clear choice.
“I watched (Shawcross) since I was a little kid and he was captain and I’ve grown up watching him,” he said at the time. “I’m close with his boys. I text him before to ask if it was ok and he said it was so hopefully I can do it justice.
"I think I just went with my gut (to choose Stoke), I've always in my life gone with my gut, you can't really go against that."
Liam Delap in Stoke City tracksuit with his dad Rory and Stoke players Danny Higginbotham and Ryan Shawcross on the end of season lap of honour in 2011, just after Stoke had reached the FA Cup final.
Liam Delap in Stoke City tracksuit with his dad Rory and Stoke players Danny Higginbotham and Ryan Shawcross on the end of season lap of honour in 2011, just after Stoke had reached the FA Cup final. (Image: Mark Scott)
This was the summer of 2022 and Stoke had to work furiously to get to the front of Man City's queue as the first destination for Delap to taste senior football. He had an astonishing record at youth level but had spent much of the last 12 months out with injury.
It probably didn't help his cause that he was coming into a Stoke squad that had been stripped right back on an exceedingly tight budget as the club readied itself to come through the worst Financial Fair Play constraints and have a chance to rebuild in 2023 - to the point that they couldn't afford a loan return for Delap's Man City teammate Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Earlier that year they had been forced to shelve a move to sign Trai Hume for a nominal fee from Linfield, seeing him go to Sunderland instead.
Then Michael O'Neill made way for Alex Neil barely a month into the season and, when Neil pushed Stoke legend Rory Delap - Liam's father - out of a first team coaching role the following January, it was clear that Delap Jr would not stick around for long either. He duly spent the second half of term at Preston North End.
In all, he made 22 league appearances for Stoke, playing with blood and thunder albeit a little raw at times, and scored three times, celebrating with gusto. He gave a better glimpse of his potential the following season on loan at Hull and then eased into the Premier League with Ipswich, scoring 12 times in 32 starts.
A relegation release clause ensured his departure but Chelsea are believed to have negotiated a deal worth £20m up front, with a sell-on clause. Man City had a 20 per cent sell-on clause when they sold him to Ipswich for £15m rising to £20m last summer. He has signed a six-year contract.
He will be the first Chelsea player to wear number 9 since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in 2022/23 but previous incumbents include Hasselbaink, Fernando Torres, Gonzalo Higuain, Romelu Lukaku, Hernan Crespo, Gianluca Vialli and, bizarrely, former Stoke midfielder Steve Sidwell plus the great Mark Stein.
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