Everton's Pursuit of Liam Delap: A £40million Gamble
Everton have been told, in no uncertain terms, what it will cost to drag Liam Delap out of Chelsea – and into their history books.
Chelsea have set the bar at around £40million for the 23-year-old striker, a figure that would make Delap the most expensive centre-forward Everton have ever signed. For a club that has spent heavily in the past but often hesitated when it comes to strikers, that is a line in the sand.
This is not a quiet chase, either. Everton are only one of several Premier League sides circling. Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are also in the front row of the queue, with Leeds United watching from a step or two back.
Forest’s focal-point obsession
At Nottingham Forest, Oliver Glasner has made his intentions plain. His sides play with a focal point. At Crystal Palace he leaned on Jean-Philippe Mateta; at Forest he has already sanctioned a club-record £48million move for Jorgen Strand Larsen on February 2. Glasner wants another heavyweight option and has told the hierarchy at the City Ground to go after Delap.
Owner Evangelos Marinakis has backed manager after manager in the market – this is his fifth permanent head coach in less than a year – and Glasner is being indulged again. For Forest, Delap is not a luxury. He is a structural piece.
Newcastle in limbo
Newcastle’s interest comes at a far more unsettled moment. Eddie Howe’s five-year reign ended on Thursday, leaving the club in a holding pattern. Their preferred successor, 38-year-old German coach Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia, has yet to be installed.
The recruitment department still likes Delap. But major outlays rarely happen while a club waits for a new manager to walk through the door and stamp his own ideas on the squad. Newcastle are in the race, but not at full sprint.
Leeds and the money problem
Leeds United are also monitoring the situation as they look for genuine competition for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. For them, though, Delap sits at the ambitious end of the spectrum.
Finances at Elland Road are tight. Leeds are already trying to push through a record-breaking £40million move for goalkeeper James Trafford. Matching that kind of fee again for a striker would stretch them close to breaking point. Interest is real, but the numbers are brutal.
Chelsea’s stance: no bargain here
Chelsea, for their part, are in no rush to cash in. The club are understood to want around £40million, a sum that would deliver a £10million profit after just one season, and they are not inclined to negotiate down. They know the market. They know the demand.
On the face of it, Delap’s numbers in blue hardly scream premium asset: one goal in 28 Premier League appearances last season, two in 41 games in all competitions. But Chelsea are pricing the player they think he is becoming, not the one the raw statistics describe.
They have also seen what he did away from Stamford Bridge. Delap hit 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich Town in 2024/25, a bright, defiant campaign in a side that ultimately dropped straight back to the Championship. When relegation triggered a £30million release clause, he suddenly became one of the most intriguing forwards on the market.
That clause opened the door. Everton tried to walk through it.
Everton’s pitch and a missed chance
Back then, Everton saw an opportunity to build around Delap as the leading man in a new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The pitch was clear: come here, and you are not just another forward. You are the face of the project.
David Moyes did something he rarely does. He spoke openly about his target.
“We’ve had a chance to speak to him, yes. He spoke to three or four clubs,” the Everton boss 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 were in the mix, but not in control. The lure of Champions League football and a reunion with Enzo Maresca – Delap’s former coach at Manchester City – pulled the striker towards Stamford Bridge. Everton’s vision of Delap leading the line at Hill Dickinson never made it off the drawing board.
A changing Chelsea, a familiar price
Chelsea got their man, but the project he joined has already shifted beneath his feet. Maresca, the key figure in Delap’s decision, left on New Year’s Day. The club then lurched through another change, hiring Liam Rosenior on a six-and-a-half-year contract and dispensing with him in less than four months.
Now Xabi Alonso has the job of making sense of it all. The Spaniard inherits a talented but uneven squad and a forward in Delap whose future once again hangs in the balance.
Despite the upheaval, Chelsea’s stance on Delap is firm. They will not let him go cheaply. They value his age, his profile, his Premier League experience and his potential under a more stable regime.
Everton’s dilemma
For Everton, the equation is stark. Pay close to £40million and Delap becomes the costliest centre-forward in the club’s history. He would sit just behind Gylfi Sigurdsson, still the overall record signing at £45million almost nine years after his arrival, and ahead of the £35million outlays on both Richarlison and Tyler Dibling.
That is the scale of commitment required. This is not a speculative punt. It is a defining call.
Everton know the player. They have courted him before. They have already imagined him as the spearhead of a side trying to drag itself into a more ambitious future.
Now the question is simple, and unforgiving: are they willing to break their own mould – and almost their transfer record – to finally make that vision real?
