Delap was signed because he is 22 and has 20/30m release clause which is a bargain for st. It is that simple.

Loan back to Ipswich with a 20M buy option.

22 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

Loan back to Ipswich with a 20M buy option.

Good call.

25 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

Loan back to Ipswich with a 20M buy option.

The Uber is booked.

Count it as a win if the deal materialize.

8 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Delap was signed because he is 22 and has 20/30m release clause which is a bargain for st. It is that simple.

A bargain only works if it brings value.

If we signed five players for 10m and we finished 10th, it would be less of a bargain than signing one player for 50m and finishing 4th.

On 17/05/2026 at 14:55, bluelightening said:

Shame we couldnt adapt to his smash and grab style then. Scored more for ispwitch in a relegation threatened side so not sure why he's not scored more for us. except for Ipswitch actually had wingers who would attack the byline, one of them was a former player of ours... Can easily see him staying or being moved on but think he may well stick about given Alonso's leverkusen side relying on a target man in Boniface. Wont be sad to see him stay or go though. Still think this transfer could work out.

Dont forget, Maresca hates attacking football and strikers and that still needs unwinding by the new manager. I suspect cole Palmer might come a cropper under an all running/ pressing style of football with Alonso. One to watch develop or not next season. And tbs, Im already looking forwardt to it, Alonso appointment has lifted the gloom a little. Hope it works out.

Look at his goals for Ipswich and you will see that it was nothing special. His first 3 goals were goalkeeping errors, 2 were penalties, and there was one where he is through 1v1 and he just hits it down the middle because he can't bend a shot around the keeper.

There is no way to adapt to his smash and grab style either. He's not Costa or Drogba that would tussle with players to win the ball, he will just barge into players or push them over, and he makes it so obvious too. All he does is foul opposition players.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Look at his goals for Ipswich and you will see that it was nothing special. His first 3 goals were goalkeeping errors, 2 were penalties, and there was one where he is through 1v1 and he just hits it down the middle because he can't bend a shot around the keeper.

There is no way to adapt to his smash and grab style either. He's not Costa or Drogba that would tussle with players to win the ball, he will just barge into players or push them over, and he makes it so obvious too. All he does is foul opposition players.

I totally get it, ive backed him through the season to come good... I do think there is a little bit of a wow factor at play here. We've had utter dogsh*t managers and the winning club mentality has become also ran finalists. Alonso will hold sway in our dressing room and I think there will be a number of players in this squad who thought they would slink off to other clubs in the summer. I have no issue with any player wanting out, but I just think alonso will bring a winners mentality to these loosers and the players buck up their sh*thousery bullsh*t attitudes... Ive never been so out of love with a group of chelsea players so next season they owe us if they stick about. But, come January we will have a good idea about who will be leaving and i reckon it wont be the manager.

I had watched him a fair bit when he was at Ipswich and was happy when we brought him. He was involved all over the pitch for them, brought a physical presence which he used well, could run at defenders, showed a decent enough touch and was a player that fired their fans up.

But, wow, he has shown none of that for us. Not a single thing. It's like he is a different person. I have done a complete 360 on him now and would say, along with Garnacho, and Mudryk he is a player we absolutely, positively must get rid of.

I think he’s the worst striker at the club this century.

On 18/05/2026 at 17:53, Scott Harris said:

There is no way to adapt to his smash and grab style either. He's not Costa or Drogba that would tussle with players to win the ball, he will just barge into players or push them over, and he makes it so obvious too. All he does is foul opposition players.

This is my biggest gripe with him. His eyes locks on the player, not the ball, seconds before barging into them so the referee have to (rightly) give the foul. When he pushes someone its with straight arms so again, it has to be given as a foul.

I had some hope for him but he's actually way below our standards even now - which is saying something

2 hours ago, just said:

I had watched him a fair bit when he was at Ipswich and was happy when we brought him. He was involved all over the pitch for them, brought a physical presence which he used well, could run at defenders, showed a decent enough touch and was a player that fired their fans up.

But, wow, he has shown none of that for us. Not a single thing. It's like he is a different person. I have done a complete 360 on him now and would say, along with Garnacho, and Mudryk he is a player we absolutely, positively must get rid of.

Would it not be a complete 180? If you did a full 360 you'd be facing the same way.

Sorry, have a good day.

Our SDs saw him as good value for a striker but their assessment of his ability was wide of the mark ( like many other players). Hes not good enough at this level, he does not affect games in a positive way and shows no sign of improvement. Just another of the SD's failures. Bad buying will hold back any business.

There was a 100-1 outsider in the Grand National, it looked superb i put a tenner on it hoping to make a grand. It fell.

Edited May 20May 20 by OTL

Worth the risk for the transfer fee but my god he is abysmal. The worst striker i've seen in the Chelsea shirt. Not even sure how he's made it to this level of the game, i assume nepotism.

1 hour ago, OTL said:

Our SDs saw him as good value for a striker but their assessment of his ability was wide of the mark ( like many other players). Hes not good enough at this level, he does not affect games in a positive way and shows no sign of improvement. Just another of the SD's failures. Bad buying will hold back any business.

There was a 100-1 outsider in the Grand National, it looked superb i put a tenner on it hoping to make a grand. It fell.

Keep the screens handy for when he falls over and hurts his leg.

Contrary to opinon here, think he had a good game last night. Link and hold up play was good, control was good, ran channels... Exactly what we needed from him all season but we've had to wait for a performance in the final home game. Think Alonso will keep him for performances like last night but needs to add goals.

To the person who said he's the worst striker to play for us, Chris Sutton was so bad at scoring we turned him into a defender because he could head the ball. Delap isnt the worst and wont be the last poor performer.

I honestly thought I could not see worse striker in a chelsea shirt Robert fleck then up pops Liam delap . 💩💩💩 he should be giving kids a ride on Blackpool beach tge big donkey 🫏

I thought he might be better. Not a big fan of stats, but his stat of ONE goal says it all really.

1 hour ago, bluelightening said:

Contrary to opinon here, think he had a good game last night. Link and hold up play was good, control was good, ran channels... Exactly what we needed from him all season but we've had to wait for a performance in the final home game. Think Alonso will keep him for performances like last night but needs to add goals.

To the person who said he's the worst striker to play for us, Chris Sutton was so bad at scoring we turned him into a defender because he could head the ball. Delap isnt the worst and wont be the last poor performer.

Did you used to take the throw in for Stoke City ?

Put his only shot simultaneously 10 yards over the bar and also wide, decided to go backwards on a promising 2 on 2 counter attack with space in behind (should be one of his strengths) and then decided to commit GBH on Spence when he’d half a chance to win a header and try get in behind.

I don’t think he is all there in the head, all he wants to do is blatantly foul. Brought in the cup final too for a few mins and you knew what he was going to do, about 30 seconds later he does the most blatant two handed shove into the Man City players back to alleviate any pressure we were building . He is beyond terrible.

Edited May 20May 20 by Dubair

Should have probably been sent off too for the elbow on Spence. Not only is he sh*te, he's also a thug.

Shocked there's someone defending him on here. The worst striker, second to none.

23 minutes ago, Dubair said:

Did you used to take the throw in for Stoke City ?

Put his only shot simultaneously 10 yards over the bar and also wide, decided to go backwards on a promising 2 on 2 counter attack with space in behind (should be one of his strengths) and then decided to commit GBH on Spence when he’d half a chance to win a header and try get in behind.

I don’t think he is all there in the head, all he wants to do is blatantly foul. Brought in the cup final too for a few mins and you knew what he was going to do, about 30 seconds later he does the most blatant two handed shove into the Man City players back to alleviate any pressure we were building . He is beyond terrible.

Did you watch him last night? Only thing missing was a goal. His control was good in congested and tight areas, his lay off's bringing others into the game were good, he led the line and put considerable pressure on Spurs defence, by 65 minutes 3 of their back four were on cards, he and the team put pressure on Spurs and it worked. Tel me we havent missed a player like that for us since Giroud without mocking yourself. Is delap the finished answer to our prayers, no. But he offered the team something vastly different to Pedro.

I saw his role positively, we won the game, we saw that we could play differently with him. Delap will go on and make a good premiership player with us or for someone else.

Love how you say his physicality on Spence was assault... VAR and the ref saw it very differently and he remained on the pitch so I presume you didnt see the game?

He totally summed himself up at the end last night when he had a chase on with the last defender and didn't even look at the ball and just elbowed him in the face instead. Truly a League 1 player.

For a 'striker' he is not a very prolific goal scorer. I don't care if he elbows faces or shoves defenders around. In fact i am all for that. BUT as a striker you have to score goals and he doesn't do that.

6 minutes ago, Zeta said:

He totally summed himself up at the end last night when he had a chase on with the last defender and didn't even look at the ball and just elbowed him in the face instead. Truly a League 1 player.

Did you watch the rest of his game? did you see the work he put in? We have been dying for a striker like the version that turned up last night.

1 minute ago, TheCeleryKing said:

For a 'striker' he is not a very prolific goal scorer. I don't care if he elbows faces or shoves defenders around. In fact i am all for that. BUT as a striker you have to score goals and he doesn't do that.

Yep, agree with that. But we dont really have a prolific striker on our books and bar Harlaand, does the league have any prolific strikers?

2 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Did you watch the rest of his game? did you see the work he put in? We have been dying for a striker like the version that turned up last night.

You think we've been dying for that sort of striker performance? He was trash. He controlled the ball successfully a few times, ran around. That's it. Standards are in the f**king dirt if that's what you want from a striker.