Ipswich Town keen on 19-year-old Spanish striker amid £30m Liam Delap, Chelsea transfer deal | OneFootball

The Europa Conference League winners are getting closer to signing their target.

Chelsea have received a big boost in their hopes of signing Liam Delap as the player's preference is to move to Stamford Bridge, but Ipswich Town want Marc Guiu on loan in return as part of the £30 million deal.

It has been revealed that the 22-year-old striker has chosen Stamford Bridge as his ideal next location amid a battle between a number of Premier League clubs to sign him.

Manchester United, Newcastle United, Everton and Nottingham Forest all wanted to sign Delap this summer, following his breakout 12-goal season, his first in the Premier League. Now, though, it looks like Enzo Maresca's side are the most likely to capture him.

The Italian boss, who knows Delap from their time together at Manchester City, where Maresca worked as a youth team coach, was reportedly influential in the striker's decision. It first emerged from Alex Crook and Ben Jacobs while Chelsea were playing their Europa Conference League final on Wednesday evening that Delap was leaning towards the Blues.

When they trigger the player's release clause, which now sits at £30 million following Ipswich's relegation to the Championship, it will hand the Tractor Boys a nice profit from their investment of around a year ago. They paid Man City an initial £15 million with up to £5 million in add-ons for Delap, who spent the previous season with Hull City in the Championship.

Ipswich want Chelsea youngster Marc Guiu as part of Liam Delap deal

Ipswich have known about their talisman's imminent departure for a while now and have been looking at options to replace him, including Sheffield United teenager Ryan Oné.

The Guardian has now reported that Kieran McKenna's side would want Chelsea's own young forward, Marc Guiu, to move to Portman Road on loan.

It would be a separate deal to the Delap one, as per Jacobs, however, the Spaniard, who was bought from FC Barcelona for £5 million last summer, is not sold on the proposed move to East Anglia.

Guiu, 19, has had very limited game time in domestic competitions since moving to Stamford Bridge. Most of his outings have been in the Europa Conference League, where he has netted six times in seven appearances.

He arrived in England as a very highly rated youngster who came through Barcelona's infamous La Masia academy system.

The six-foot-two centre-forward does have a great many attributes to his game, which certainly justifies Ipswich's interest in him.

Ipswich may be taking a risk with Marc Guiu pursuit

They don't need to worry about potentially jeopardising a deal for Delap because they are going to get £30 million from him this summer no matter what.

If Chelsea doesn't work out, others will still be in line.

The question is: will Guiu be worth the risk, given his lack of experience in England?

It hasn't put Ipswich off targets before, and their recruitment has been pretty good of late despite the relegation, it has to be said.