Recent multi-million pound Chelsea transfer could catch Preston North End faithful off-guard | OneFootball

Former Preston North End forward and Manchester City youth academy graduate Liam Delap is on the cusp of a big money move to Champions League Chelsea

Former Preston North End forward and Manchester City youth academy graduate Liam Delap has made a big-money move to Champions League Chelsea this summer.

It was midway through the 2022/23 season for Preston, when then-manager Ryan Lowe was forced to do some digging into the loan market for depth in his forward line, following the free exit of Sean Maguire.

To bolster North End’s attack, Everton’s Tom Cannon was brought to the club, and so was 19-year-old Delap from Manchester City, who had spent the first half of the season with PNE’s Championship rivals, Stoke City.

Delap was a player Man City had plenty of confidence in as he was working his way up through their ranks. Pep Guardiola said in 2022: "He’s a type of striker that we don’t have. He’s a killer. He’s a typical British striker and an incredible finisher. The only problem we had this season was injury, after injury, after injury. He struggled a lot with his ankles and was not fit. But he has special quality."

Delap is the son of former Potters’ midfielder and long throw-in legend Rory Delap. His time at Stoke had been underwhelming, as would be his time at Deepdale.

And yet, going into the 2025/26 season, after impressing with newly promoted Ipswich Town in the Premier League the season before, Delap is now going to be playing Champions League football under former City youth boss Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge.

Delap’s time at Deepdale didn’t quite go the way it was meant to

It was first reported by LancsLive that the Lilywhites were interested in acquiring Delap on loan all the way back in the summer of 2021, when he was just 18. However, nothing ever materialised at that time.

Instead, it would be mid-way through the 2022/23 campaign when Preston fans would get their first good look at the teenager. He arrived at Deepdale having struggled somewhat in the first half of the season, scoring three goals in 23 matches for Stoke.

Despite only outright missing five games of Preston’s final 20 in that Championship season, it took until the penultimate game for Delap to get his first goal for the club. He poked home from close range in an eventual 4-1 defeat to Sheffield United.

To his credit, he also made a vital contribution to a tense draw with fierce rivals Blackburn Rovers which went mostly unnoticed the week before. He smartly turned away from Adam Wharton on the right flank and drilled a low ball into the area which was inadvertently turned into his own net by Rovers’ Dominic Hyam in the 94th minute of the match.

Ultimately, though, in Preston colors, Delap never really managed to get out of first gear. He finished the season with just one goal to his name, and he often found himself playing second fiddle to fellow loanee Cannon, who was averaging a much better goal output – eight in 21 matches.

The forward said as much himself to Sky Sports about his entire 2022/23 season. Reflecting on his loan deals from that year, he said: "I was still very young when I went to Stoke and Preston. They (the loans) obviously didn't go as well as I wanted them to, but it was an incredible experience and I was very grateful I got to do that. I learned more in that year than I (ever) have."

Delap has found his footing after spells with Hull City and Ipswich

Delap would finally start to prove that Guardiola was correct in his 2022 praises when he went out on one more Championship loan spell in 2023/24, this time to Hull City.

Again, speaking with Sky Sports in April, he said: "A couple of times I didn't really suit the way teams played and I found it difficult. Last season was a lot better and I chose really well there - at Hull - which helped me a lot.

"(My previous loans) taught me a lot about how to go about things and I made more of a decision then, when I went to Hull, about looking into and doing more research on where I want to go - and what would be best for me. That is probably what helped at Hull and it went a lot better there."

At the KCOM Stadium, the England youngster’s research seemed to pay off, as he managed eight goals in 32 appearances for the Tigers as they finished seventh in the league table, a mere three points outside the play-off places.

The 2023/24 campaign wasn’t all smooth sailing for Delap, though. In January, a knee injury would see Delap out of action for a while. HullLive speculated at the end of the season that “the knee injury he picked up early in January which saw him miss the next three months proved crucial in City's drop in form”.

Still, Delap had done enough in Tigers’ colors to earn the interest of newly promoted Ipswich.

Ipswich were one of three teams promoted to the Premier League ahead of 2024/25, and Delap said to Sky Sports about manager Kieran McKenna ahead of the new campaign: "When I joined I knew that the manager and everyone here at the club was going to improve me and help me as a player - probably even more than I imagined."

The Tractor Boys struggled to make the step-up throughout the season, but Delap was given a chance to shine, notching 14 goal contributions in 40 games in all competitions. In fact, of the 14 matches that Ipswich didn’t lose in the league, Delap scored in half of them.

Delap could prove himself to be one of Europe’s best next season on the biggest stage

His form wasn’t enough to stop Town dropping straight back into the second tier, but it was enough to attract the attention of his old Man City youth boss, Maresca, now in charge of Chelsea. According to The Athletic, Delap decided on his preferred destination last week – that being Stamford Bridge.

Sky Sports had suggested that there was also interest from Manchester United and Newcastle United, but it has now been confirmed that Chelsea have met the striker’s £30m release clause that was in place due to Ipswich's relegation.

Last season, the Blues’ top scorer in the Premier League was Cole Palmer, with the attacking midfielder managing 15 in 37 matches. Second on that list was Nicolas Jackson, who Delap will provide the most competition to upon his arrival.

The Senegalese international bagged 10 in 30, two fewer than Delap in the competition, but he’d managed that total in seven fewer games. It’s easy to argue that Jackson received much better service from the likes of Palmer and Enzo Fernández, than Delap did at relegated Ipswich.

With a Champions League-level support system behind him, and under a manager who already knows what he’s all about, this could be a match made in heaven for Delap, and could also leave Preston and Stoke fans wondering what might have been.