Chelsea hit stumbling block in race to sign 21-year-old Premier League breakout star: Reports
Chelsea could reportedly fail in their ongoing pursuit of Ipswich Town attacker Liam Delap with Manchester City in pole position to re-sign the player.
Delap, 21, left Manchester City to join Kieran McKenna's outfit for an initial sum of £15 million earlier this summer. He has turned heads with his excellent displays of late, scoring six goals and registering one assist in 12 Premier League matches in the ongoing campaign.
According to Spanish website Fichajes.net, Chelsea are keen to launch a move to rope in former Southampton and Stoke City midfielder Rory Delap's son. However, Manchester City could prove to be an obstacle as they have a buy-back clause of £20 million for the striker.
The Stamford Bridge outfit, who have been on the lookout for talented youngsters since 2022, could decide to sell Christopher Nkunku in the future. As a result, they could step up their interest to snap up Delap.
Meanwhile, Manchester City could choose to trigger their former player's buy-back clause in the future. Pep Guardiola's side have no backup option to Erling Haaland after offloading Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid.
During his time at the Cityzens between 2019 and 2024, Delap featured in 55 total age-group games. He scored a combined 46 goals and recorded 16 assists for his former club's U23 and U18 teams, while also scoring once in six total appearances for their senior side.
Chelsea urged to bolster defence in January
Earlier on Saturday (November 23), Chelsea registered a 2-1 win against Leicester City in a Premier League away clash. Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez netted once for the visitors before Leicester's Jordan Ayew converted a penalty in the fifth minute of injury time.
Speaking on talkSPORT, former Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor suggested that Chelsea should buy a new goalkeeper and a few defenders to strengthen their squad. He said (h/t Metro):
"Right now, they should be looking at [the title race]. But, I still think that the goalkeeper and the defenders keep letting in poor goals. That should have been an easy 2-0 win, if not a 3-0 win. Just open at the back today and I think that's why they have to go for top four right now. Unless in January they go out and get a couple of signings, that backline is going to cost them."
So far this season, Chelsea have conceded 14 goals in 12 Premier League games and have registered two clean sheets with none coming at home.