Forest agree £50m deal for Chelsea striker Delap

, Senior football correspondent and , Football reporter Nottingham Forest have agreed a club-record fee worth around £50m to sign Chelsea striker Liam Delap. The 23-year-old is expected to undergo a medical and sign a long-term contract at the City Ground this week. Delap's move comes a year after he joined Chelsea from Ipswich Town for £30m amid competition from Manchester United and Everton . However, Chelsea made him available for sale this summer after he scored just one Premier League goal in a previous campaign disrupted by shoulder and hamstring injuries. Forest have already signed defender Ousmane Diomande from Sporting for £34m, alongside free agents, Austrian midfielder Xaver Schlager and goalkeeper Steve Benda. They sold England midfielder Elliot Anderson to Manchester City for a club-record £116m and striker Taiwo Awoniyi to Coventry City for £9m. Delap's arrival would provide competition for strikers Chris Wood and Igor Jesus, who failed to find the target in Forest's 1-0 defeat by Leeds in their home Premier League opener on Saturday. Chelsea have also signed two strikers this summer in Emmanuel Emegha from Strasbourg and Danny Welbeck from Brighton . Delap came up through Derby County's youth system before joining Manchester City in 2019. After helping City win the FA Youth Cup in the 2019-20 campaign, he scored 24 goals in 20 Premier League 2 matches in 2020-21 as they won the title. In September 2020 the striker scored on his senior City debut in a 2-1 League Cup win against Bournemouth , and three days later made his Premier League debut in a 5-2 defeat by Leicester. Injuries played a part in limiting further first-team opportunities, and between 2022 and 2024 Delap spent time on loan in the Championship with Stoke, Preston North End and Hull City . In the summer of 2024 he was sold for £20m by City to Ipswich and scored 12 goals in 37 Premier League games for the newly promoted side. Follow Nottingham Forest on broadcaster Sounds Pre-match, post-match and topical Forest content More on this story