Chelsea striker Liam Delap interview: ‘I really love the aggressive side of the sport but I can control my emotions’

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There is something amusingly incongruous about meeting Liam Delap in Sky High, the gleaming bar on the 60th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, which offers a panoramic view from the tallest tower in the U.S. city.

Chelsea’s new £30million striker is a resolutely grounded character who greets the waiting group of journalists warmly before conducting his first sit-down media interview since signing for the London club from Ipswich Town early this month as directly as he plays.

“I don’t like too much information,” he says, when asked what Manchester City academy team-mate Cole Palmer told him about Chelsea before he agreed to join him there. “Ultimately, it was my decision, so I kind of just wanted my head to be clear. I spoke to him a little bit, asked him what I needed to ask him. He told me what I needed to know.”

A month ago, Delap was in the enviable position of being coveted across the Premier League; the combination of a breakout season in which he scored 12 league goals for Ipswich and a relegation release clause that made him a bargain in the eyes of many when they went down after one season back among the domestic elite. It left him with the luxury of options, but also the burden of choice.

“It was a nice position to be in, but also there are a lot of decisions you have to make,” he adds. “You never know if it is going to be the right decision. You’ve just got to go with your gut and hopefully it works out.”

Ipswich lined up a FaceTime call with their most famous fan, singer Ed Sheeran, when persuading Delap to join them from City in the summer of 2024. Part of the strength of Chelsea’s pitch lay in familiar faces rather than celebrity ones: Enzo Maresca, who had been his coach in the season when City’s elite development squad won Premier League 2 for the first time in 2020-21, plus former academy colleagues Palmer and Romeo Lavia.

“There are so many factors that go into it,” Delap explains. “I’ve got a good relationship with the manager. I know how he plays. I’ve played in this system before. I know a lot of the players here and the project of the club, how they see the future. That’s what excited me.”

Delap consulted Cole Palmer before choosing Chelsea (Carl Recine – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Delap scored 24 goals in just 20 appearances at the tip of Maresca’s dominant City Premier League 2 side in 2020-21, still a record in the competition. “The team we had was crazy,” he says with a smile. “You look at it now and everyone has gone on to progress differently but they are all doing really well. We smashed every record that season, so it was top.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that he is quick to dismiss the notion he might struggle to adapt from Ipswich’s more counter-attacking style to Chelsea’s patient, possession-heavy approach, which is frequently met by opponents defending deep. “I spent five years at City and every game we were in that position,” he says. “I’ve been on different loans and different paths since City, but they’ve all taught me little things I think can help.”

Chelsea also saw in Delap a striker who could help them evolve.

He is a player of a different profile to fellow Chelsea front man Nicolas Jackson, every bit as mobile but a significantly more muscular attacking focal point, capable of creating chaos in opposition defences with his sheer presence.

Dominant in youth football at City, he was forged as a professional in the competitive fire of the Football League, tussling with centre-backs during loan spells in the second-tier Championship at Stoke City, Preston North End and Hull City that did not yield prolific goal returns but equipped him for anything on the pitch.

“I love those battles,” he says. “I always have, since I was a kid. I really love the aggressive side of it and the competitive nature of the sport. It’s got to be controlled at times but it’s my game ultimately, and I enjoy it. I’ve always had that same edge and I’m not going to change the way my mindset is. You’ve just got to make sure you’re on the right side of the edge.”

Delap operated on that edge in the first half of Friday’s feisty second Club World Cup group match at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Flamengo defender Leo Pereira stood provocatively over Chelsea’s new striker after one early tackle near the corner flag, and received a firm shoulder charge by way of response on the stroke of half-time. That earned Delap a yellow card, his first for the club after picking up 12 for Ipswich in the Premier League last season.

“It was my first season playing in the Premier League, playing with VAR, so it’s something that I’m going to have to get used to and work my way around to try and get fewer yellow cards,” Delap admits. “But it’s not something I’m worried about. I can control my emotions when I need to.”

Chelsea will need him to, with Jackson set to serve a one-match ban at minimum after being shown a straight red card for a studs-up tackle on Flamengo defender Ayrton Lucas. Delap is sympathetic.

“You have to be aggressive, on the front foot all the time,” he says. “I was right in front of it (on the bench) when it happened. It was so unlucky. He obviously didn’t mean to do it; these things happen in football and I am sure he will get over it.”

Delap in his youth days with City (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Jackson’s absence makes the timing of Delap’s arrival even more important. He was slated to be a key figure in Lee Carsley’s England Under-21 squad for that age group’s ongoing European Championship in Slovakia, but Chelsea’s determination to maximise their chances in the Club World Cup took precedence.

“I had my sights set on the Euros all season and I was really looking forward to that,” he says. “But I signed here and they wanted me to be here. I want to be here as well. I need to get to know everyone, so that’s why I’m here.”

Maresca has already backed Delap to become England’s next great No 9 and, despite his admiration for the national team’s all-time top goalscorer Harry Kane, the 22-year-old feels he now has the platform to impress coach Thomas Tuchel. “It’s going to help being at a club like this,” he says. “If I’m playing badly then, obviously, I know I’m not going to be in, but if I’m playing well, then it gives me a good chance.”

Taking the No 9 shirt at Chelsea is a fitting statement of intent.

At least one high-profile signing in the preceding Roman Abramovich era declined to wear that number on arrival at Stamford Bridge after becoming convinced it was cursed, but superstition is not in Delap’s character. “I’m not that type of person,” he says. “It’s something that people speculate about, but it doesn’t mean anything to me.

“At the end of the day, it’s a number on the back of your shirt. To me, it doesn’t really mean a lot, it’s just a number. The number nine has always been related to strikers, so it’s something that I like, but there’s no pressure.”

Delap’s single-minded focus might be just what Chelsea’s at times meandering attacking play needs.

Even if their stuttering involvement in this competition proves shorter than hoped, he is confident it will give him the foundation to maintain his Premier League momentum.

“It will set me up really well,” he says of the Club World Cup. “It’s a really, really high-level tournament. I’m with the boys all the time, it helps me settle in really fast, and we can prepare and work on things that we want to use in the season to come.”

(Top photo: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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