Liam Delap's £40million Price Tag: A Challenge for Everton
Everton have been told exactly how much Liam Delap will cost them – and it is a figure that would rip up their transfer history.
Chelsea, under no pressure to sell after just one season with the striker on their books, have set a £40million asking price for the 23-year-old. That number does not just test Everton’s budget; it would make Delap the most expensive centre-forward the club has ever signed.
A record fee or walk away?
To land Delap, Everton would have to go beyond every striker deal they have ever done. Only Gylfi Sigurdsson, at £45million, has cost the club more in any position. The next names on the list – Richarlison and Tyler Dibling – both came in at £35million.
Paying Chelsea’s price would put Delap straight into that bracket. For a player with one Premier League goal in 28 games for the London club last season, it is a bold demand. Across all competitions, he scored just twice in 41 appearances in blue.
Chelsea, though, hold the cards. They paid £30million for him and want a £10million profit. The message from Stamford Bridge is clear: anyone who wants Delap on a permanent deal will have to pay up.
A striker in demand
Everton are not alone. Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are also at the front of the queue, with Leeds United keeping a watching brief.
At Forest, Oliver Glasner has made his intentions obvious. His teams play with a focal point. At Crystal Palace he leaned on Jean-Philippe Mateta; at the City Ground he has already brought in Jorgen Strand Larsen for a club-record £48million. Now he wants Delap added to that attacking armoury, and owner Evangelos Marinakis is ready to back yet another head coach – his fifth permanent appointment in under a year.
Newcastle’s interest comes during a period of uncertainty. Eddie Howe’s five-year reign ended on Thursday, and the club’s preferred replacement, 38-year-old Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli, has yet to be installed. The recruitment drive is running alongside a managerial search, and Delap’s future sits in that blur.
Leeds, as reported by the i, are monitoring the situation as they look for competition for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. But their finances are stretched as they push to complete a record £40million deal for goalkeeper James Trafford. Matching Chelsea’s valuation for Delap on top of that would be a huge reach.
Everton’s long chase
This is not the first time Everton have tried to build their attack around Delap.
He hit 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich Town in the 2024/25 season, a bright spot in a campaign that still ended in relegation. When Ipswich dropped, a £30million release clause was triggered, opening the door for a move.
Everton stepped through it quickly. The club saw him as the leading man for a new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium, a centre-forward to grow with a reshaped side. David Moyes even broke character. The Everton manager, usually guarded in public, went on record about his admiration after holding talks with the player.
“We’ve had a chance to speak to him, yes. He spoke to three or four clubs,” Moyes 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.”
What happened was Chelsea.
The Chelsea detour
Delap chose Stamford Bridge. The pull was obvious: Champions League football and a reunion with Enzo Maresca, the coach who had helped shape him at Manchester City. It looked like a carefully plotted step in his development.
The plan did not last long. Maresca left on New Year’s Day. Chelsea lurched again, hiring Liam Rosenior on a six-and-a-half-year contract and then sacking him in under four months. Now Xabi Alonso has been handed the job and the task of bringing order to a restless squad.
Through all of that, Chelsea’s stance on Delap has hardened, not softened. One goal in the league, two in all competitions, yet no willingness to cash in on the cheap. They want their £40million.
Decision time
So Everton are back where they were, staring at the same striker, only at a higher price and in a tougher market. Pay a record fee for a player they once thought they could get for £30million, or walk away and watch another club gamble on his ceiling.
The chase for Delap has already shaped one transfer window on Merseyside. The next move could say plenty about how bold Everton are prepared to be in this one.
