Everton's Pursuit of Liam Delap: A £40 Million Challenge

Everton have been told exactly what it will cost to finally get Liam Delap – and it is a figure that would rip up their transfer history.

Chelsea have set the bar at around £40million for the 23-year-old, a fee that would make Delap the most expensive centre-forward Everton have ever signed and push him close to the club’s all-time transfer record. For a striker with just one Premier League goal for Chelsea last season, it is a bold valuation. Chelsea, though, are standing firm.

A crowded queue for Delap

Everton are not alone. Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are also at the front of the line, with Leeds United hovering in the background.

Forest’s interest is the most aggressive. Oliver Glasner has made it clear since arriving at the City Ground that his system needs a proper focal point. At Crystal Palace he leaned heavily on Jean-Philippe Mateta; at Forest he has already pushed through a club-record £48million deal for Jorgen Strand Larsen. Now he wants Delap as the next piece, and owner Evangelos Marinakis is again ready to bankroll his head coach – the fifth “permanent” appointment in less than a year.

Newcastle’s pursuit is more complicated. Eddie Howe’s five-year tenure ended on Thursday, leaving the club in a holding pattern. Their preferred replacement, 38-year-old Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli, has yet to be installed, and major transfer calls are harder to rubber-stamp without a manager in place. Delap is on the list, but the structure around the decision is not yet settled.

Leeds, as reported by the i paper, are tracking the situation from a different vantage point. They want competition for Dominic Calvert-Lewin but are working under tight financial constraints while trying to complete a record £40million deal for goalkeeper James Trafford. Matching Chelsea’s demands for Delap on top of that would be a stretch.

Chelsea dig in

Chelsea’s stance is clear. They are not ready to cut loose a player they signed only a year ago, especially not at a loss. The club want roughly £40million – about £10million more than they paid – from any side looking to take Delap permanently from Stamford Bridge.

The numbers from last season hardly scream marquee striker: one goal in 28 Premier League appearances, two in 41 games in all competitions. Yet Chelsea see a longer game. Delap is 23, physically imposing, and viewed as a forward whose best years should still be ahead of him.

That valuation lands Everton in unfamiliar territory. Their current record buy remains Gylfi Sigurdsson at £45million, almost nine years on from his arrival. Behind him sit Richarlison and Tyler Dibling at £35million apiece in terms of initial fees. To land Delap, Everton would have to push a centre-forward beyond all of them.

The one that got away – and might not

The chase for Delap is not new at Goodison’s temporary home. Everton were deep in the running when the striker’s £30million relegation release clause became active after Ipswich Town dropped straight back to the Championship, despite his 12 Premier League goals in the 2024/25 campaign.

Those goals, in a struggling side, sharpened interest across the division. Everton hoped the promise of being the attacking figurehead in a new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium would tip the scales. The club’s pitch was simple: come here, be the main man.

David Moyes even broke character. Normally guarded in public over transfer business, the Everton boss went on record about his admiration and the talks that had taken place.

“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. Delap chose the pull of Champions League football and the chance to work again with Enzo Maresca, his former coach at Manchester City. From Everton’s perspective, it was a near miss that underlined their reduced pulling power in the current landscape.

A new Chelsea, a familiar dilemma

The environment Delap walked into at Stamford Bridge has already shifted. Maresca left on New Year’s Day. Liam Rosenior arrived on a six-and-a-half-year contract and was gone again in under four months. Now Xabi Alonso has been appointed, tasked with restoring order to a club that changes head coaches almost as quickly as it changes transfer targets.

For Delap, that upheaval cuts both ways. A new manager might see him as central to a refreshed attack and block any move. Or Alonso could look at Chelsea’s options, look at the market, and decide that a £40million sale for a squad striker helps fund the rebuild he wants.

Everton, Forest, Newcastle and Leeds will all be waiting for that call. The price has been set. The question now is simple: who believes Liam Delap is worth ripping up their own limits for?