It’s being reported that Liam Delap wants to stay at Chelsea this summer and fight for his place.
But regardless of that, I don’t think he will stay. But I also don’t think he will be sold. I see a domestic loan incoming.
Delap has just been nowhere near good enough in a Chelsea short so far, but he does have a lot of assets that could still see him turn into a good 9. I understand he’s not showing that right now and is nowhere near top level, but I think it would be smart to loan him out and develop him. At the very least, we will amortise more of his £30m transfer fee and hopefully even add a bit more on top, if we do decide to sell at a later date.
I am not saying I definitely wouldn’t sell if we had a good offer – I would likely take it if I was Chelsea. But I’d also be more than happy to send him on loan.
Remember, as we reported last week, Delap has rejected a proposal from Chelsea to go to Strasbourg next season. But I do believe he would be more interested in a return to Ipswich Town.
As we also reported on this site, Ipswich will approach Delap/Chelsea if they get promoted back to the Premier League. And that promotion was confirmed yesterday. So we do expect them to make an approach now, and a loan move might be something that suits all parties.
We will see what happens here, but I can see that potentially transpiring. Delap will need to put himself first and put first team minutes first, so he will need to consider moving away from Chelsea, even if temporarily. And Chelsea will need to improve what they’ve got in the striker positions, so Delap needs to go, along with Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson. And for me, Emmanuel Emegha isn’t quite there yet either.
Simon Phillips