“He needs to find” – Tuchel has his say on Chelsea target hailed as “fantastic” by Maresca | OneFootball

Former Chelsea boss and current England manager Thomas Tuchel has had his say on Blues transfer target Liam Delap.

Chelsea are preparing for another busy summer and could look to fund their business by selling as many as seven or eight players.

The Blues main priority is a striker, but they are also looking to sign a centre back and right footed attacker to improve Enzo Maresca’s squad.

Tuchel talks on Chelsea target Delap

Chelsea have paid the price for failing to sign an alternative to Nicolas Jackson both last summer and in January, but have identified a number of targets.

The Blues have been most strongly linked with Delap who’s available for £30m after Ipswich got relegated from the Premier League.

Manchester United and Newcastle are interested in the 22-year-old, but Everton are surprisingly the newest club to show interest in Delap.

Delap is attracting interest from a number of Premier League clubs. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

Maresca has praised Delap a number of times this season, and Tuchel has now had his say on the Ipswich man after leaving him out of the latest England squad.

“He needs to show and prove it,” he said as cited on X.com.

“It doesn’t help if we talk endlessly about him. We know his quality, but the fact is he went down with Ipswich.

“He needs to find a chance to still compete in the Premier League and [then] he needs to fight for his place and score.

“But he’s clearly on our radar and we will never hold someone back because of age, not because he’s too old and not because he’s too young. He needs to show up now for the U21s, take it step by step.”

Delap has impressed in his debut campaign scoring 12 league goals and it will be interesting to see what his next club is.

Ekitike and Sesko targets

If the Blues were to miss out on Delap they do have other targets on their shortlist including Hugo Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko.

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Ekitike has had a good season with Frankfurt and the Bundesliga outfit are said to want as much as €100m for the 22-year-old.

Sesko, who is also attracting interest from Arsenal has an €80m release clause in his RB Leipzig contract, and if Chelsea are to land the 21-year-old they will likely need to offer Champions League football.