Liam Delap faces a tough decision. Not about joining Chelsea, it seems, but rather what shirt number he picks when he gets there.
There is an obvious opening, but one that comes with a major warning, for the No 9 at Chelsea weighs as heavy as any shirt in the Premier League.
“Nobody wants to touch it. People tell me it’s cursed,” Thomas Tuchel said when managing the Blues in August 2022.
A month later Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang claimed the number, ignoring the fate that befell (deep breath) Romelu Lukaku, Tammy Abraham, Gonzalo Higuain, Alvaro Morata, Radamel Falcao, Fernando Torres, Franco Di Santo, Steve Sidwell (eh?), Khalid Boulahrouz (wait, what?), Hernan Crespo and Mateja Kezman before him.
“He is not afraid of the past and what a number means,” Tuchel said after Chelsea bought Aubameyang. “He is ready to write his own history.”
The current Chelsea squad have avoided the No 9 shirt (Photo: Getty)Aubameyang went on to score three goals in 21 games, and was shipped off to Marseille in the summer of 2023 after just one, nightmare campaign.
No Chelsea player has touched the No 9 shirt since. For two seasons now it has gone completely ignored, and Delap will be aware of the superstition should he complete his transfer in the coming days.
But whether he takes the number or not, Delap will be Chelsea’s No 9 in name, a mighty burden in itself.
square FOOTBALL Why Liam Delap has chosen Chelsea over Man Utd as Amorim picks two alternatives
Read More
No centre-forward has scored 20-plus Premier League goals in one season for the Blues since Diego Costa in 2016-17, and in the years that have followed, Tottenham, Manchester City, Leicester, Arsenal, Southampton, Brentford, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have all boasted an out-and-out striker who has.
Liverpool are the obvious absence there, but they’ve had Mohamed Salah. In those seasons since Costa’s 20-goal return, Chelsea largely relied on Eden Hazard before enduring two campaigns where a paltry seven league goals was enough to finish first in blue: Jorginho (2020-21) and Kai Havertz (2022-23).
Counterbalancing this curse of late has been the blessing that is Cole Palmer, who has picked up a responsibility Hazard, Mason Mount (top scorer in 2021-22) and Frank Lampard also bore.
Palmer has topped the Chelsea charts the past two seasons and is already among their top 10 Premier League goalscorers, an impressive feat that also speaks volumes about their failures up front, particularly as John Terry still sits eighth.
It has been a dearth. A spiralling cycle of strikers failing and midfielders thriving to the point where it is difficult to decipher which one is the result of the other.
Delap must therefore buck the trend. The man with just 12 Premier League goals to his name, the striker who scored two more than Nicolas Jackson managed this season from eight less shots (76 vs 68) – a handy comparison, but hardly one to make the champions quiver, as you must scroll past Salah, Alexander Isak, Erling Haaland, Bryan Mbeumo, Chris Wood and a handful more players before you find their names.
Delap would rather Nicolas Jackson for competition (Photo: Getty)That Delap scored 12 goals for a relegated side is neither a spectacular nor shoddy return. It’s fine. But to suddenly make him your first-choice striker, assuming he is arriving to displace Jackson, well that represents a risk.
Delap is risking it too. Deemed Harry Kane’s England successor, the 22-year-old is gambling his reputation on a transfer that makes him either another name for the curse or Chelsea’s saviour at long last.
To make it the latter, he must convert more of his chances in a higher-pressure scenario. His rate of 0.15 goals per shot was the same as Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez, and though the margins are fine regarding this statistic – Salah’s rate was 0.17 and Haaland 0.18 – the strikers who set the bar included Wood (0.26), Yoane Wissa (0.21) and Isak (0.20).
There will be greater scrutiny on the chances he has too, and Delap isn’t used to that level of expectation. It could be argued there is only one way to ever experience it, but doing so with only Jackson for competition is not exactly ideal, and there are other options.
square FOOTBALL Five players Chelsea should buy this summer - and five they should sell
Read More
For one, Delap could have taken a smaller step. Everton were after him, and would have made him their undisputed first choice, while he could also have sought an apprenticeship elsewhere. A role Rasmus Hojlund needed at Manchester United – who in another world forked out on Harry Kane – instead of being thrust into the team and told to do something special.
Now Hojlund is the latest poster boy of the United circus, looking utterly bereft of confidence when what he really needed was a fellow striker with more experience to partake some wisdom.
Delap arguably needs the same. His return for Ipswich this season doubled his career league tally, so to suddenly shoulder so much expectation at Chelsea seems absurd.
He would have been better off at Newcastle, where he could learn from Alexander Isak, but instead sources told The i Paper that Delap prefers having Jackson for company as opposed to jostling with Newcastle’s £150m-rated Swede.
It could be that Chelsea go in for a more experienced striker as well, but in turn that would counter Delap’s reasons for going there, and if he feels ready, then that can only be admired.
The fact he has shone next to Palmer and under Enzo Maresca at youth level is an added plus, and while replicating this link-up seen at Manchester City’s academy stadium under the lights of Champions League football at Stamford Bridge is some ask, Delap clearly believes.
It will be the role of a lifetime, and if it pays off, not only will the curse be lifted, but greater silverware than the Conference League trophy might be lifted as well.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Liam Delap could be the victim of a famous Chelsea curse )
Also on site :
- At least 21 Palestinians killed while heading to Gaza aid hub, hospital says
- NYT Connections Sports Edition Today: Hints and Answers for June 1
- South Korea is voting for a new president after six months of political chaos. Here’s what to know