Everton have been backed to make a new transfer raid for Liam Delap this summer after missing out to Chelsea last year<\/h2>\n
David Moyes should go back in for Liam Delap this summer because he could get his career back on track at Everton.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the verdict of Andy Townsend, Chelsea\u2019s first captain of the Premier League era, on the striker who completed a \u00a330million transfer to Stamford Bridge in June 2025.<\/p>\n
Delap netted a dozen Premier League goals for Ipswich Town last season but after they went straight back down to the Championship, his relegation release clause enabled him to talk to interested parties.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Ex-referee disagrees with what VAR said as Everton were denied penalty against Man City<\/span><\/span>READ MORE: Everton’s Thierno Barry reveals David Moyes’ personal training ground role in Man City brace<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Everton were one of those chasing his signature at the time, hoping the prospect of being the leading star going into a new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium could add weight to their bid.<\/p>\n Blues boss Moyes took what was an unusual step for him of publicly declaring his interest and following their talks he said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had a chance to speak to him, yes.<\/p>\n \u201cHe spoke to three or four clubs. He\u2019s given us our opportunity to pitch our case. We\u2019re probably a little bit behind the black ball but hopefully, you never know what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Delap chose to go to Chelsea who could offer Champions League football while also providing him with the chance to play under Enzo Maresca, who had previously been his coach at Manchester City.<\/p>\n However, the Italian having departed on New Year\u2019s Day, the west London club \u2013 who have subsequently hired and fired Liam Rosenior, dispensing of his services less than four months into a six-and-a-half-year contract \u2013 can no longer finish in the top five, having lost their last six Premier League matches, leaving them currently level on 48 points with Everton.<\/p>\n Despite being part of the Chelsea squad that lifted the FIFA Club World Cup in the USA last July \u2013 alongside Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who moved to the Blues for \u00a325million the following month \u2013 Delap has netted just once in 26 Premier League matches this term and has struck twice in 38 games in all competitions.<\/p>\n Townsend told football betting site BetVictor: \u201cWith Thierno Barry and Beto at Everton, there’s an opportunity for somebody if you want to go in there and grab a shirt. Those boys are no doubt giving it their very best, but you\u2019d like to think that there\u2019s an opportunity there for somebody if they can convince David Moyes that they can go in there and do it.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Liam, he\u2019s a big, bustling, hard-running, aggressive centre forward. It\u2019s difficult for a centre-forward to be overly aggressive nowadays because you just can\u2019t get away with that.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I do think that there\u2019s another dimension to his game that he’s got to find. The problem is you go to a club like Chelsea and you\u2019re not playing a lot of football if you\u2019re not playing in the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t reserve football or anything like that. You don\u2019t get the minutes that perhaps you used to get in generations gone by to keep yourself ticking over.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s very frustrated, but he\u2019s got to get razor sharp this summer and at the start of next season. He\u2019s got to look like he wants to really get in there and make the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n FOLLOW OUR EVERTON FC FACEBOOK PAGE!<\/strong> Latest EFC news and analysis from via the Liverpool Echo\u2019s dedicated FB page<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Maidstone-born Townsend, who was a former Republic of Ireland captain, winning 70 caps and scoring seven goals for the Boys in Green having qualified to represent them through his paternal grandmother who hailed from Castleisland in County Kerry, reckons that Everton are the perfect club for Jake O\u2019Brien to continue his development.<\/p>\n The defender netted his first goal of the season in the 3-3 draw at home to Manchester City on Monday and Townsend said: \u201cI think Jake O\u2019Brien is at the perfect club for him at this stage of his career, I like Jake.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether or not he\u2019s a right-back, it\u2019s difficult for him sometimes as such a big man playing in those sorts of positions when he\u2019s got Jeremy Doku running at him like he did this week. It isn\u2019t easy, but I like him because he\u2019s a competitor.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysically, he\u2019s a proper unit in both boxes and I think Everton is absolutely the right size club for someone like Jake at this stage of his career. Why leave a club where you’re playing more often than not and go somewhere to sit and watch just because it\u2019s potentially a so-called better or bigger club? I think Everton is perfect for him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that he played for Sean Dyche (he was signed under his watch from Olympique Lyonnais for \u00a316.43million but was never picked for a Premier League start in half a season) is good for Ireland, too. In the last decade, we\u2019ve not always had enough players playing top-flight Premier League football in the Irish team.<\/p>\n \u201cSeamus Coleman is at the back end of it now, and not having enough boys playing at that level has had an effect on our standing and the results that we\u2019ve got. Jake is playing consistently for Everton, and they are a consistent team.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were terrific on Monday night when they had a go at City in the last half-hour. I think Everton is absolutely the perfect club for him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everton have been backed to make a new transfer raid for Liam Delap this summer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}