Everton are leading the race to sign English centre-forward Liam Delap from Chelsea this summer, according to TEAMtalk.
Delap arrived at Stamford Bridge last summer from Ipswich Town with high expectations after netting 12 Premier League goals in his debut season. Since his arrival, the 6ft 1in forward has endured a nightmare stint at the club, fluffing goalscoring chances, getting into several scuffles and getting red-carded.
He has netted just one Premier League goal in 28 games for the Blues and two in 41 appearances across all competitions, which is an underwhelming goalscoring return.
After Xabi Alonso arrived as head coach, Delap appeared to have a clean slate after featuring prominently in the Blues’ pre-season games in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
However, he was left out of the squad that faced Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, along with other players expected to leave the club this summer.
Now, according to TEAMtalk, Chelsea have told Delap he can leave this summer and have placed a £40m valuation on him, with several clubs now showing interest.
One of the clubs looking to sign the 23-year-old is Everton, according to the report, which claims that the Toffees are leading the race to sign the centre-forward.
Delap to Everton
It appears Everton are already stepping up efforts to sign him, with the report adding that the Toffees have held talks with Chelsea to discuss Delap’s potential transfer to the Hill Dickinson Stadium this summer.
However, being the leading contenders, David Moyes’ side will still have to battle stern competition from Manchester United in the race for Delap, while other clubs, including Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Como, Villarreal and Benfica, have also expressed interest in the former Ipswich man, TEAMtalk adds.
Everton transfer activities have already kicked off with several additions. They warded off competition from several clubs to sign Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough, while Christian Norgaard has also joined from Arsenal to provide more combativeness to Moyes’ midfield.
Tyrique George and Merlin Rohl have both been signed permanently from Chelsea and Freiburg, respectively, after the duo spent the last campaign on loan at the club.
With the Toffees already in talks to sign Delap, there’s an expectation that playing regularly under the tutelage of Moyes could help the Englishman rediscover his 2024-25 form.
However, Everton currently have Thierno Barry and Beto as centre-forward options, so it’ll be interesting to see which of them would be sold to accommodate Delap if he joins.
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