Manchester United had player 90% signed before Chelsea moved in to sign him | OneFootball

Manchester United apparently had a player 90% signed before Chelsea moved in to sign him in the summer transfer window.

Plenty went on in the summer and there was always something to keep an eye on. Chelsea did some of their business early so that they could get some new signings in to help in the Club world Cup. It was a sort of two-part summer transfer window and Chelsea wanted to bring some new attackers in.

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They duly went ahead and signed Liam Delap from Ipswich Town but they knew they would have some competition.

Apparently, Manchester United wanted Delap as well and actually got the deal done 90% of the way. But it didn’t happen for whatever reason and it was Chelsea who actually ended up signing the hot prospect and bringing him to Stamford Bridge.

United got very close

Estevao Willian and Liam Delap celebrate. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images) generic

Chris Wheeler of The Daily Mail writes this week:

‘Liam Delap, now at Chelsea, was a move [to Manchester United] that was 90 per cent done for £30m.’

Not sure about that

In all honesty, Delap always looked destined to join Chelsea for a long time ever since Enzo Maresca was complimenting him last season. It had a feeling of being a deal that was probably always further along than whatever we had been hearing and we didn’t really hear much about United other than interest.

They might have tried, but I think Delap was always joining Chelsea personally so I’m really not sure that you can say he was 90% close to joining United at any point.

Either way, he’s a Chelsea player now and I don’t expect anyone involved with the club or the player will want to be looking back now. They will only be looking forward, getting back fit again after his injury, and smashing it as a Blue!