Since leaving Manchester City permanently last summer, Liam Delap has emerged as one of the best strikers in the Premier League.
Despite playing for relegation-threated Ipswich Town, Liam Delap has managed to muster up an impressive tally of nine league goals this season.
Delap has earned praise from Darren Bent and plenty of other pundits as he looks like the complete centre-forward — capable of finishing chances with ease, bullying defenders and being proficient at holding the ball up and linking play up.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 19 |  IpswichIpswich | 24 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 22 | 49 | -27 | 16 |
Much like in the cases of Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, the 22-year-old’s success has proven that Manchester City might have the best youth academy in English football.
However, Manchester City included a buy-back clause while selling Delap, which was a wise decision as his talent has always spoken for itself.
If City were to re-sign the Englishman, they would undeniably have the strongest forward department as it also boasts of Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush.
Man City not looking to re-sign Liam Delap despite buyback clause
Delap has already worked under Pep Guardiola and in the event that he was set to return to the Etihad Stadium, he would unlikely have any problems in adapting to City’s style of play.
The youngster is Premier League-proven at this point too and possesses both the physical and technical attributes to continue performing at the highest level.
However, journalist Ben Jacobs revealed on GiveMeSport’s show, ‘Market Madness’ that Manchester City have no intention of triggering Delap’s clause to re-sign him.
“But he’s only going to improve. I would just add very briefly as well that Man City have got a buyback clause on Liam Delap. But at this stage, there’s no indication that they’re going to take it.But that could be an added wrinkle in all of this as well come the summer, that technically Manchester City can just buy the player back if he agrees.”
“But it doesn’t look like that’s their plan at this stage. And obviously, with Omar Mahmoush arriving and Erling Haaland being the starting nine, if he thought about that option, if it presents itself, he’s not going to get the same game time as at Chelsea, Spurs or Manchester United.”
Earlier this season, Kieran McKenna was unaware about Delap’s buyback clause as per his own admission and as Ben Jacobs claimed, in theory, a deal could be done if both Manchester City and their former player are open to a reunion.
Delap is an outstanding talent and he would improve this Sky Blues side.
But it seems like Manchester City are happy to let other teams have a stab at signing the former Derby County goalscorer, much like in the case of Romeo Lavia.
Delap interested in Chelsea move
Ben Jacobs also added that signing for Chelsea appeals to Delap.
“If Arsenal get [Benjamin] Sesko, Chelsea then likely would move for Liam Delap. And then we wait and see whether Manchester United, who also appreciate Delap can influence that situation. Of course, Manchester United fans being greedy and not thinking about finances will say, we’ll just get Victor Gyokeres because Ruben Amorim likes him, but that’s a £70 million outlay.”
“And Delap, I think, is also quite intrigued by the Chelsea project, especially knowing that if he’s the number nine that comes in, he may stand a very strong chance of supplanting or at least competing with Nicolas Jackson, who, we must stress, Chelsea do still have big faith in. So Chelsea and Delap is one to watch.”
Manchester City ultimately have no reason to be worried whatsover even if Delap moves to Chelsea and ends up becoming a hit as they arguably have the best number nine on their books in Haaland.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 5 |  Man CityManchester City | 24 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 48 | 35 | 13 | 41 |
