Exclusive: Mikel John Obi questions Liam Delap deal - and reveals who Chelsea should have signed instead

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Evening Standard

·11 de junho de 2025

Exclusive: Mikel John Obi questions Liam Delap deal - and reveals who Chelsea should have signed instead

Former Blues stalwart believes club may have made the wrong decision with early striker swoop this summer

For Mikel John Obi, the Club World Cup is not an opportunity for his beloved Chelsea to blood young players but, rather, a chance to lift more silverware a little over a month after winning the Conference League. But he feels one piece of the jigsaw remains missing.

“The Club World Cup is another trophy to be won,” the former Blues midfielder tells Standard Sport. “Of course, Chelsea compete to win.

“It’s £100million if you win it. That just gives a massive advantage against other Premier League teams. Winning trophies is the culture of Chelsea Football Club. That’s what we do. That’s what we are.”

Chelsea fly to the United States for the tournament on Friday with their frontline bolstered, after they signed Liam Delap from Ipswich for £30million. Delap scored 12 Premier League goals for a relegated side this season — decent stats for a 22-year-old — but Mikel is still not convinced they moved for the right target.

“It’s not a secret. Everybody knows who I want to come to the football club and who the fans want to see at the football club,” Mikel asserts. “But they’ve decided to go down a different route.”

Mikel has long and loudly been an advocate for Chelsea signing the Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, but his fellow Nigerian is said to have high wage demands which have turned a number of Europe’s top clubs cold and suggest he may end up in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East instead.

Vídeos OneFootball

“I just hope that it’s going to be the right decision,” Mikel adds. “I like Liam Delap. He’s a good young striker who works his socks off. Is he a proven goalscorer in the Premier League? Can he do it at a big club like Chelsea? That’s the question. It’s about how the manager works with him and develops him.

Alternative target: Mikel John Obi believes Victor Osimhen would have been a better immediate fit for Chelsea than Delap

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“What we need as a team is healthy competition. You can’t win the Premier League or Champions League with just one striker. We’ve only had Nicolas Jackson. Now, he and Delap will push each other. I hope we’ll see the best of both of them at the Club World Cup.

“With Victor Osimhen, if you want the finished article, if you want someone who can come in straight away, get you goals, win you trophies, put you in the top four, you have to pay the big bucks. That’s what the big clubs do.

“If you want somebody to evolve over the next two, three, four years, which is what the club has done, then that also makes sense. But Chelsea Football Club’s culture is winning — straight away. If you want to win, you have to bring in a Victor Osimhen.

“That’s how you win trophies. Because he will get you goals. Delap is a great young striker, but you have to wait and see if he’ll do it at a big club like Chelsea. Did he do it this season with Ipswich? Of course, they got relegated. So there’s so much to take in.

If you want to win, you have to bring in a Victor Osimhen

Mikel John Obi

“I hope he does well,” Mikel smiles. “But the fans and me, we would have liked to see a proven goalscorer, somebody who has done it in Italy, in Turkey, and could have come here and done it for the club straight away.”

The question of what Chelsea must do better at the Club World Cup and beyond draws an immediate response.

“Scoring goals. It is as easy as that. We were one of the teams creating the most chances, but we didn’t take them. Scoring goals is the number one priority.”

Mikel John Obi was speaking ahead of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Watch all 63 games live on DAZN for free.