Everton's Pursuit of Liam Delap: A £40 Million Dilemma
Everton have been told exactly what it will take to land Liam Delap – and it is a figure that would rip up their transfer history.
Chelsea have set the starting price at around £40million for the 23-year-old striker, a fee that would make him the most expensive centre-forward Everton have ever signed and push him into the top bracket of the club’s all-time buys.
A bidding war for a focal point
Delap is not short of admirers. Everton are one of three Premier League clubs at the front of the queue, with Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United also circling.
At Forest, the plan is clear. Oliver Glasner wants a proper spearhead. He built around Jean-Philippe Mateta at Crystal Palace and has already convinced the City Ground hierarchy to smash their transfer record on Jorgen Strand Larsen for £48million in February. Now, with owner Evangelos Marinakis again ready to bankroll his fifth permanent head coach in under a year, Forest have been instructed to chase Delap as the next piece of that attacking blueprint.
Newcastle’s interest comes from a very different place. The club is in transition after Eddie Howe’s five-year tenure ended on Thursday. Their preferred successor, 38-year-old German coach Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli, has yet to be installed, leaving recruitment plans hovering in mid-air. Delap sits on their radar, but the project he would be walking into is still being drawn.
Leeds United are watching too, as reported by the i. They want genuine competition for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but the numbers look heavy for a club trying to stretch its budget to a record £40million deal for goalkeeper James Trafford. A full-scale move for Delap from Elland Road would be bold in the extreme.
Chelsea dig in
Any club hoping Chelsea might blink will be disappointed. The London side, under new management again after a chaotic season, are in no rush to cut Delap loose after just one campaign at Stamford Bridge.
The ECHO understands Chelsea want around £40million – roughly a £10million profit – to even consider a permanent sale. That stance comes despite Delap’s modest return last season: one goal in 28 Premier League appearances, and two in 41 games across all competitions.
On the face of it, the numbers do not scream £40million striker. Chelsea, though, are pricing the player they believe he can still become, not the one whose first year in blue stuttered.
Everton’s dilemma
For Everton, the equation is stark. Pay the money, and Delap becomes the costliest centre-forward in their history.
The club’s transfer record still belongs to Gylfi Sigurdsson, the midfielder signed for £45million almost nine years ago. Behind him sit Richarlison and Tyler Dibling, both at £35million. Delap, at Chelsea’s asking price, would crash straight into that bracket and redefine what Everton are willing to pay for a No.9.
It is not the first time the Merseyside club have tried to make Delap the figurehead of a new era. He hit 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich Town in 2024/25, a bright personal campaign overshadowed by the club’s immediate relegation back to the Championship. That drop triggered a £30million release clause, opening the door to suitors.
Everton were there, keen to sell him on the idea of becoming the central star at the soon-to-be-opened Hill Dickinson Stadium. This was not a quiet, behind-closed-doors courtship either.
Blues boss David Moyes took the unusual step of speaking openly about the pursuit. “We’ve had a chance to speak to him, yes. He spoke to three or four clubs,” he said at the time. “He’s given us our opportunity to pitch our case. We’re probably a little bit behind the black ball but hopefully, you never know what happens.”
Everton made their case. They did not win it.
The Chelsea choice – and what changed
Delap chose Chelsea. Champions League football, the pull of a club stacked with young talent, and the chance to work again under Enzo Maresca, his former coach at Manchester City, proved decisive.
The project he signed up for has already shifted. Maresca left on New Year’s Day. Chelsea then lurched through another misstep, hiring Liam Rosenior on a six-and-a-half-year contract only to sack him in under four months. Now Xabi Alonso has been handed the job and the task of imposing order on a squad that has been in constant churn.
Alonso’s arrival changes the picture for Delap. A new manager, a new system, and a club that has spent heavily on forwards will force hard decisions. Chelsea’s stance, though, is firm: if Delap goes, he goes on their terms.
A £40m question
So Everton stand where they so often have in recent years: at a crossroads in the market, weighing risk against need.
Do they break their attacking transfer record for a 23-year-old who has flashed potential at Ipswich but stuttered in a Chelsea shirt? Do they walk away and watch a focal point they once courted become the centrepiece of someone else’s project – perhaps at Forest, perhaps at a resurgent Newcastle?
Chelsea have named their price. The race is on to decide who believes Liam Delap is worth rewriting their own history for.
