One Chelsea star has four months to save their Stamford Bridge career

Cameron Smith

• 9 Feb 2026 06:01 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Liam Delap has been a Chelsea player for less than a year, but he arguably has just four months to save his career at Stamford Bridge.

The England striker arrived in west London amid much fanfare following a fantastic debut season at Ipswich Town and he was regarded by many as a player capable of breaking the striker curse at Chelsea.

The Blues haven’t been blessed with a world class centre forward since the departure of Diego Costa in January 2018, but Delap was viewed as someone with the ability to cement his place as a key player for the Stamford Bridge outfit.

He was also widely compared to Costa thanks to his aggressive style of play and ferociousness in front of goal. The reality has been majorly underwhelming.

Delap has only scored three goals in 28 appearances across all competitions since joining Chelsea and he is firmly behind Joao Pedro in the pecking order under Liam Rosenior.

His all-round play has been a massive disappointment and the Englishman has been unable to adapt to playing for a bigger club with higher expectations. His style of play was perfectly suited to Ipswich’s transitional system and Delap has struggled immensely to find space when faced against a deep block.

Unlike the aforementioned Pedro, the 23-year-old hasn’t been able to fashion chances for himself and the fact he has more yellow cards (two) than goals (one) in the Premier League this season is a massive concern.

Analysis: Liam Delap to be sold by Chelsea?

The Chelsea hierarchy have been incredibly ruthless in the transfer market over the past three years and there’s no guarantee that Delap will remain at the club next season if his form doesn’t improve.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga were all sold last summer after just one year at Stamford Bridge, while a total of 16 first-team players have been signed and offloaded permanently since Clearlake Capital arrived in 2022.

Furthermore, with Emmanuel Emegha and Dastan Satpaev both arriving this summer, Delap is likely to drop even further down the pecking order in west London unless he puts together a string of impressive performances during the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign.

If not, he could find himself pushed towards the exit door, especially as reports suggest that Chelsea are also interested in beating Arsenal to the signing of Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez.

Everton, Manchester United and Newcastle United have all been tipped to rekindle their pursuit of Delap this summer, and Chelsea will almost certainly consider a sale if they can turn a profit on the €35.5 million fee they paid to sign him from Ipswich.

Delap therefore arguably has just four months to save his Chelsea career or he could become the latest star to be sold after failing to make the grade at Stamford Bridge.

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