Former Premier League striker Darren Bent is not convinced Liam Delap would be the right fit for Chelsea this summer.
The Blues are preparing for another busy window, with the club looking to sign a striker, centre back and right footed attacker to strengthen Enzo Maresca’s squad.
Chelsea also have a number of players they’d like to move on and it’s thought they could look to fund their business by selling as many as seven or eight from their squad.
Bent not convinced Delap is right fit for Chelsea
The main priority for Chelsea is a striker and they’ve paid the price for not having an alternative to Nicolas Jackson.
Chelsea’s top target in that position appears to be Liam Delap, with the Ipswich striker available for £30m after their relegation from the Premier League was confirmed.
Maresca has praised Delap publicly on a number of occasions and is said to be putting pressure on Chelsea to sign the 22-year-old who’s scored 12 league goals this season.
However, Bent isn’t convinced Delap would be the right fit for Chelsea and thinks the jump from Ipswich could be too big for him.
“I think Nicolas Jackson, they need competition for him, but also I think they need, this is no disrespect, better than him,” he told talkSPORT.
“The problem is, where do you find that better? Because it feels like there’s about 10 teams looking for a centre-forward.
“I think Liam Delap would push him, but again, that’s another risk because he’s got all the potential. When you’re looking at Liam Delap, who’s been brilliant for Ipswich this year, you are buying potential still.
“I almost feel like there should be a middle ground somewhere. Going from Ipswich all the way to Chelsea and competing for the number nine, establish yourself and then go again.
“I think Jackson’s decent, but I certainly think Chelsea could find better.”
Chelsea have other targets
Delap isn’t the only name on Chelsea’s list and the Blues have been linked with the likes of Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike.
John Obi Mikel is still seemingly single handedly driving the Victor Osimhen move, but it appears that looks unlikely.
Whoever it is, the most important thing is Chelsea sign the right player because they can’t afford to get this decision wrong.
I don’t know why maresca is keen on delap,he is not a top world class strikers,delap can’t help our situation right now,go for a proven world class strikers like oshimen and stop wasting money on players that won’t fix our problem urgently, oshimen has proven himself in serie a and doing same at Turkish league,what more prove do you need
The same big mistake Chelsea board made in January by not signing oshimen is the same mistake they are about to make now by overlooking victor oshimen and placing delap on top of striker shortlist,I don’t think this Chelsea board knows what they are doing,a striker that has proven himself in two major leagues and I two top clubs in Europe compared to delap that is not even in the top five strikers topping the scoring chart in epl this season and you are placing such strikers as your main priority for next season
There are three strikers shortlist Chelsea should be looking at signing one of them for next season,they are guirassy, gyokeres and victor oshimen,these three strikers are world class and either of them will solve our goal scoring problem,my favourite of the three is victor oshimen
Victor oshimen is the only striker out of above listed strikers shortlist that has proven himself in two top clubs in Europe, gyokeres only proved himself in sporting cp and guirassy only proved himself in two clubs in German league