Liam Delap is due at Nottingham Forest for a medical on Wednesday, fourteen months after joining Chelsea and one season after scoring two goals in 41 appearances. Forest are paying a club-record fee: £45m guaranteed, rising to £50m if the add-ons are met. Chelsea bought him for £30m last summer. On a striker whose year at Stamford Bridge went about as badly as a year can go, that is £15m of guaranteed profit and £20m at the ceiling.
The striker Chelsea are selling
Chelsea triggered a £30m release clause to sign Delap from Ipswich Town last summer, winning a race that also involved Manchester United, Newcastle, Everton and Forest themselves. He had scored 12 goals the season before for an Ipswich side that went down. At Chelsea he scored one Premier League goal, two in all competitions, and ended the campaign on a 26-game drought.
The season broke early and never recovered. He tore a hamstring sprinting for a ball in his third league appearance and was out for more than two months; a dislocated shoulder followed later in the campaign. He played under three managers in a season Chelsea finished 10th and did not qualify for Europe.