Exclusive: Chelsea new striker target has 3 Premier League goals | OneFootball

Last night, another goal for Jhon Duran – this time on the biggest possible stage, in the Champions League against Bayern Munich – reignited the debate about whether Chelsea should have pushed harder to sign him in the summer.

We came close – but it all seemed to fall apart for silly reasons. Since then Nicolas Jackson has continued his steady improvement, and Christopher Nkunku is dangerous off the bench, reducing the clamour for a Jackson backup.

But it’s clearly something Chelsea are thinking about, as has been confirmed by Simon Phillips’ latest exclusive. He wrote in his Substack piece today that apart from the names we’ve heard plenty of times before – Duran, Benjamin Sesko, Samu Omorodion etc, there’s a new face on the list.

It’s an appropriate time to add him, given he scored a great goal at the weekend. Liam Delap is a former Man City youth player (and we’ve seen a few of those coming in and doing well under this regime) now finally showing what he can do in the Premier League with Ipswich.

He’s a big fella, certainly not the same style of striker as Nkunku, but he’s got surprisingly nice feet for a gentleman of his stature – just watch how he sent Diego Carlos of Aston Villa to the shops with a stepover at the weekend before scoring.

Liam Delap celebrates a goal for Ipswich. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Delap seems to have all boxes ticked

Unlike some of the more fantastical moves we hear suggested, this one seems very plausible. He’s the right age, wouldn’t demand crazy wages, would likely happily back up Jackson (at least to start) offers something different off the bench, is probably affordable at a price where we can potentially make a profit in the future, has the physical tools… it’s all there.

The question of whether he really has the true ability to be a Premier League star is something we will have to find out over time.