Liam Delap Is An Absolutely Horrific Footballer, and We’re Tired of Pretending He’s Not

Liam Delap Is An Absolutely Horrific Footballer, and We’re Tired of Pretending He’s Not

In Chelsea’s first pre-season friendly fixture of their 2026 summer tour of Australia, they came out with a thrilling 6-4 victory in Sydney over their A-League outfit Western Sydney Wanderers.

Liam Delap started the game following a full summer break after he was unsurprisingly left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

Delap surely is gone. There’s no saving this pic.twitter.com/TwmYt9RV6W

— Dazz (@Dazza123Chels) July 29, 2026

However, he struggled to really get going and came off the pitch with no goal contributions surrounded by Chelsea’s youth, with Xabi Alonso also seemingly furious with him at points during the game - before the Blues ran riot as soon as the 23-year-old was replaced by an incredible Joao Pedro.

With Danny Welbeck all but confirmed to be heading to Stamford Bridge as per Fabrizio Romano, and with Nicolas Jackson’s future still uncertain, many Blues fans are getting impatient with the Manchester City youth graduate and want him gone. Now.

🚨🔵 Danny Welbeck to Chelsea, here we go! Deal in place with Brighton for the English striker.

Welbeck agreed terms with Chelsea until 2028, medical next; Brighton approved decision to let him go after formal request from Danny.

Jordan Henderson: coming soon. 🔜 pic.twitter.com/E7C5gaiW8U

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 29, 2026

Lots of False Hope

Coming to Stamford Bridge for £30m from a relegated Ipswich Town side, Delap was always going to arrive in West London with a lot of pressure on his shoulders – especially after adopting the “cursed” number nine jersey.

He joined at the beginning of Chelsea’s victorious FIFA Club World Cup campaign last summer, scoring his only goal of the tournament against Esperance Tunis of Tunisia in and amongst some other promising performances, before bagging an impressive brace against Bayer Leverkusen in a 4-1 win to round off pre-season preparations.

However, Delap really struggled to find any form at Chelsea despite the club’s strong start to the season. His first competitive goal of the campaign didn’t come until the end of November, where a goal in a 30-minute cameo in a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the most prestigious club competition out there would have given many Blues fans the hopes that Delap could turn his fortunes around.

Unfortunately and annoyingly for the Chelsea faithful, this was a one-off. Delap managed just one goal in 28 appearances throughout the season and as Chelsea’s woeful second half of the season continued, Delap couldn’t provide the back-up the Blues needed to help out Joao Pedro – who had a stellar debut campaign in comparison.

After the recent agreement for Welbeck from Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea now have seven strikers on their books heading into the new campaign, and thankfully for many fans, Delap is one of those who looks likely to be let go.

Curse of the 9 Shirt? Or Just Shit?

Over the past two decades or so, the number nine shirt at Chelsea Football Club is thought to be cursed, following its users not performing to their abilities and never being able to prove their worth.

The fact that during this period, Tammy Abraham was one of the better players to make use of the nine shirt should say enough – other players such as Fernando Torres would also fall into that category, because although his full stint in West London didn’t go as hoped, that magical goal at the Camp Nou in 2012 more than paid off his fee.

Nevertheless, the reason the adjective “cursed” is used to describe the shirt is mainly because forwards such as the likes of Torres, Radamel Falcao, Alvaro Morata and Gonzalo Higuain were all world class forwards in their own right; however, all failed to provide the goods at Chelsea.

Meanwhile, for Delap, although he is still young and there is time for him to grow as a forward, it simply will not and should not be at Stamford Bridge – it is safe to say that Manchester City knew something that the rest of the league didn’t last summer when they opted not to trigger Delap’s £40m buy-back clause.

Every single Chelsea fan who was happy to see Jackson leave the Bridge last summer will entirely retract ever having those thoughts if it meant Delap ended up going to Manchester United instead – because the competition him and Pedro would have for that starting spot would have been relentless and then some.

The silver lining for those hoping Delap has already played his last competitive fixture in a Chelsea shirt is that there are breaking reports suggesting that Everton, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United are all interested and monitoring his situation – although the value of £35m-£40m may be too steep for some.

🚨🔵 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍: Leeds, Forest and Everton interested.

Chelsea value Liam Delap between £35m & £40m.

— @PeteHall86 | @theipaper pic.twitter.com/MIUTzqhpPD

— 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞 (@TheChelsZoneX) July 29, 2026

As a Blues fan myself, I would like to see him succeed, but right now it shouldn’t be at Stamford Bridge.