Ipswich Star Liam Delap Set to Be a Wanted Man This Summer

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Liam Delap
Liam Delap (Credit James Cracknell via Wikipedia)

The 2024/25 Premier League season may be remembered for many things when we look back on it in the future. We cannot be sure exactly what right now, because football can always throw up shocks when you least expect them. However, with the campaign into the final weeks now, it seems almost certain that it will be the year when Liverpool join Man United on 20 top-flight titles.

Fans of Nottingham Forest may remember it either as the season they qualified for the Champions League, or, perhaps, the one where they threw away a spot in the highly lucrative tournament. For Southampton supporters it has been a campaign to forget but they will hope that they can get the two more points they need to avoid being the worst team in PL history.

Even should they manage that, however, this term will surely go down in history as one where the gap between the bottom three and the rest has been huge. Collectively the sides currently in the three relegation spots are easily on course for the worst points total in Premier League history. Things might change over the course of the next six games but it seems incredibly likely that the three newly promoted sides will all be heading straight back to the Championship.

Ipswich are the most likely to survive, but a quick glance at a betting website shows that the bookies make them a 40/1 long shot to stay up. It has been a tough old season for the Tractor Boys but one major bright spark has been the form and performances of striker Rory Delap. Sadly, for all those concerned with the club, the former Man City forward seems certain to leave whether the Suffolk club go down or if they somehow pull off a miracle and stay up.

Delap’s Season So Far

Ipswich Town FC logoDelap only turned 22 early in 2025 and despite the struggles his club have had, he has enjoyed an excellent season. Ipswich have scored just 33 goals in the Premier League from their 32 games thus far, with only the bottom two finding the back of the net less frequently. Delap has been responsible for 12 of those, meaning he has scored over 36% of his team’s goals.

The tall centre forward also boasts two assists this term, so he has been involved in 42.42% of Ipswich’s Premier League goals. That shows just how important he has been for them and without him Ipswich would surely already be down and be looking at a similarly dreadful points tally as Southampton, or certainly Leicester.

Considering his age and the fact this is his first time playing regularly in the top flight, his numbers have been superb. He has stayed fit, appearing in 82% of the available minutes and being named in the starting XI 91% of the time, just missing one game due to suspension. 31 Premier League matches have brought his 12 goals, whilst he has failed to score in three cup appearances.

His nine yellow cards may be seen as something of a negative, but they are indicative of a young, athletic striker who really makes his presence felt. He has hit the woodwork three times in the league, so he could well have scored more. Two of his goals have come from the penalty spot but his high shooting accuracy (49%), and relatively low number (10) of big chances suggest he could certainly score a lot more given the right service. That is backed up by the fact that he has slightly outperformed his xG, whilst it is also worth noting that his expected assists are slightly higher than the two his teammates have converted too.

Delap Demand


All of these stats and his strong performances at a struggling club have made the former Man City player a target for several teams. Ipswich only signed him on the 13th of July, 2024, and his contract will not expire until the end of June 2029. However, no matter what Ipswich do over the next six games, it seems guaranteed that Delap will move to a bigger club in the summer.

The Suffolk side made the striker, a traditional number nine who is in some ways the obvious heir to Harry Kane, one of their major signings. The deal they agreed with City was worth up to £20m and they have clearly had a good return on that investment. Indeed, Delap was just Ipswich’s fourth-most expensive signing this season, behind Jaden Philogene, Omari Hutchinson and Jacob Greaves, but he has certainly been their most successful.

Release Clause for a Fee of £40M

It was believed that he had a release clause in his contract that allowed him to leave for a fee of £40m. However, in recent weeks it has been revealed that should Ipswich go down – and even winning their six final games may not be enough to avoid that fate – then that release clause would drop to just £30m. Man City are believed to have a buy-back clause, whilst they also have a 20% sell-on agreement, so things are not looking too great from Ipswich’s point of view.

Likely to Sign with Big Premier League Club

City are unlikely to resign the forward, who would not wish to join the queue behind Erling Haaland in any case. However, there will be no shortage of clubs who are interested in signing the son of former long-throw ace, Rory Delap. That relatively low fee means that he is affordable for any Premier League outfit, whilst the bigger, richer clubs would feel that even if he doesn’t quite make the grade with them, they would almost certainly be able to sell him on for a tidy profit. He is a bit of a free hit to big-spending clubs, such as Chelsea, with Arsenal, Man United, Newcastle, West Ham and Everton also all reported to be monitoring the situation.

Who Is Delap?


Delap came through the youth system at Derby first, before joining Man City’s academy in 2019. Part of a football mini-dynasty, his father, Rory, played 11 times for Ireland and made over 350 Premier League appearances, largely in midfield for Stoke, but initially with Derby County. Liam’s brother, Finn, is only 19, and currently plays for Burton.

Liam was part of very successful youth teams with City and won the 2022 U19 Euros with England. He has Irish citizenship as well as English but will hope to play for the Three Lions, having played for England at every age group from U16 upwards. Born in Winchester, he boasts three goals in 12 games for the Under 21s.

He played just six times for City, having loan spells with Stoke and Preston. He then spent most of the 2023/24 campaign on loan with Hull, scoring eight times in 31 Championship games. That was enough to earn the move to Ipswich and having impressed there, Delap looks ready to take the next step up.