Ipswich Town break silence on £30m Liam Delap to Chelsea transfer as medical confirmed..
Liam Delap is set to sign for Chelsea after the Blues activated the 22-year-old striker’s £30million release clause following Ipswich Town’s relegation to the Championship
Liam Delap
Chelsea are close to completing the signing of Liam Delap (Image: Alex Dodd – CameraSport)
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Ipswich Town chairman Mark Ashton has insisted the club remain “well protected” with star striker Liam Delap on his way to Chelsea.
football.london understands the Blues have paid the 22-year-old’s £30million release clause – inserted into his contract last summer with the risk of the Tractor Boys being relegated back to the Championship – and the striker is set to have his medical at Cobham in the early part of next week. Delap has been of interest to several Premier League clubs, as well as teams from overseas, ahead of the mini transfer window opening on Sunday.
However, Delap has chosen Chelsea for three key reasons: Enzo Maresca’s style of play, the quality already in the squad and a genuine belief the club can challenge for the top honours in seasons to come. At just £30million, Chelsea view this deal as an absolute no-brainer and believe this move will be great value for money in years to come, with a confidence in Delap and his future potential.
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As for Ipswich, it seemed inevitable they would lose Delap, who scored 12 goals for the Tractor Boys in their relegation season. Ashton, who refused to mention Delap’s name due to confidentiality reasons, has now put into context his club’s position when inserting a relegation clause in the striker’s contract after signing him from Manchester City almost 12 months ago.
“I never speak about any player’s individual position, because I’d be breaking every confidentiality rule in the book, but I’m going to give you a bit of context to this,” Ashton said to the EADT and Ipswich Star. “Let’s be really clear, when you are signing players from a Premier League football club as a newly-promoted Premier League football club, young or old, they’re very nervous about being stuck in a Championship club.
“Because the stats show that newly promoted clubs often go straight back down. So the contracts are always heavily negotiated. The reality is that when there’s a high profile player who is wanted by several clubs, you get presented with a term sheet – ‘those are the terms for the club’ and ‘those are the terms for the player’.
“You’re told, ‘If you want to talk to the player and give your pitch to sign him, you have to agree to those terms because if you don’t, then there are six other clubs who will agree’. We speak to other clubs, we know the market, so we know that that’s not lies.
“So there is very little to negotiate. You’re taking it or you’re leaving it. At that point, our relations allow us to nibble around the edges of those agreements, to bend and twist them, so we get the best version of it. That’s just fact. That’s just the reality of where you are. You’ve gone from being a big fish in a small to medium pond, to being a big fish in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Ashton did an interview back in March where the Ipswich chairman insisted the club were “very, very, very well protected” when asked about Delap’s contract. Since then, it has been confirmed Delap had a £30m relegation clause in his deal and Ashton has now clarified his comments from a couple of months ago: “You protect yourself to the best of your ability.
“The board and major shareholders all know what you’re getting into. That means, at that point in time, you are going to break the record purchase for the football club and if you sell that player, you’re going to break the record sales for the football club. And also – remember, I’m not talking about any specific player – when that player moves on, you retain a percentage of his future profit as well. You’re protected.
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