The Liam Delap Nottingham Forest transfer story has taken the one turn nobody at the City Ground wanted: Forest are no longer alone. A cluster of reports on Thursday evening put Leeds United and Everton alongside the Reds in a race for the out-of-favour Chelsea striker, with the fee framed at anywhere between £40m and £50m — and Leeds, of all clubs, arrive at the City Ground on Saturday for Oliver Glasner’s first Premier League game in charge.
Here is what the beat is actually reporting, and what it means for a Forest squad that still has a hole where its long-term No 9 should be.
- What each outlet has said about the fee, and why the numbers differ
- Why Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 makes the striker slot the window’s most important job
- How Leeds and Everton change the maths for Forest
- The case for caution — and what realistically happens before deadline day
Background: the No 9 problem Forest have not solved
Forest went into this window needing a centre-forward and, with days left, they still do. The Guardian’s season preview, published on Thursday by Will Unwin, put it plainly: Forest “are seeking to sign a new striker, with Chris Wood’s injury record and ageing body raising questions about the 34-year-old’s ability to lead the line for a full season.” On Delap specifically, Unwin wrote that he “is of interest and feels like the ideal candidate if Forest can prise him away from Chelsea, albeit the 23-year-old will not come cheap.”
The depth behind Wood is thin rather than absent. Igor Jesus and Arnaud Kalimuendo are both on the books, with the Nottingham Post reporting on Thursday that the club have reached a decision over Kalimuendo’s future. But Taiwo Awoniyi’s move to Coventry City on 17 August removed a recognised Premier League forward from the group, and nothing has come in to replace him. Forest’s summer spending — Ousmane Diomande for £34.3m from Sporting, Xaver Schlager and Steven Benda on free transfers — has gone on the spine of the team, not the tip of it.
That is the context for The i Paper describing Forest’s window as a six-transfer wish list with one deal mattering more than the rest. It is also why we noted earlier this week that Forest were, at that point, treating midfield rather than the striker slot as the priority — a reading Thursday’s reports have now complicated.
Liam Delap Nottingham Forest transfer: what the reports actually say
The £40-50m question
There is no single agreed figure, which is normal this late in a window. GiveMeSport framed Delap as a “£50m Chelsea star”. We Ain’t Got No History, a Chelsea-focused outlet, put the bracket at £40-50m and described it explicitly as a “race” involving Leeds, Forest and Everton. The Sun reported the same three-club picture, tying it to what it called a “brutal Chelsea shirt snub” for the forward. Treat all of it as reporting on a live negotiation rather than a settled valuation: the gap between £40m and £50m is exactly the space clubs argue over.
Leeds United: rivals in the market, opponents on Saturday
The timing is almost too neat. Daniel Farke’s Leeds are Forest’s opening-day visitors on Saturday, and on Thursday night they were reported as the newest entrant in the chase for the striker Forest want. The Independent had earlier reported a Premier League pair considering a move for Delap after what it described as his Chelsea exile; by the evening, the number of interested clubs had grown.
talkSPORT went a step further and reported that a new Premier League club had emerged as frontrunner for Delap — without that club being Forest. For a side that has spent the summer telling supporters this is a reset season, losing a first-choice target to a direct rival would sting rather more than the money.
Why the striker slot is worth this much to Glasner
Look at the shape. Glasner has built pre-season around a 3-4-2-1, the system that worked for him at Crystal Palace, and a 3-4-2-1 asks one striker to do an enormous amount: hold the ball high, occupy two centre-backs, press the first pass and finish what the two No 10s create. Morgan Gibbs-White, the captain, and James McAtee are the obvious candidates for those inside slots. Neither is a focal point.
Wood, at 34, can do that job. Whether he can do it week after week without the buffer of European football — Forest have no UEFA competition this season after finishing 16th — is the question the Guardian raised and the club has not yet answered. Glasner himself told Sky Sports this week that he has already identified further targets, and the beat has him working on more than one strand at once: Forest are also, per the Nottingham Post, “one step away” from a new signing, while interest in a Fiorentina midfielder has surfaced.
The counter-argument: reasons Forest should not chase this
Three, and they are not small.
The price is a stretch for a player who has not settled. Delap has spent this window being reported as surplus at Stamford Bridge. A £40-50m fee for a 23-year-old in that position is a bet on potential, not on proven top-half Premier League output.
Forest have already spent, and the Anderson money is not infinite. Elliot Anderson’s £116m sale to Manchester City on 2 July was a club record, and it funded Diomande. Evangelos Marinakis has never been shy, but a second eight-figure fee in the same window, on top of the reported Dodô deal and midfield interest, is a great deal of churn for a head coach who has only been in post since early July.
A bidding war is the worst way to buy. With three clubs in, the seller sets the terms. Forest were also, this week, fielding a Hull City approach for Dilane Bakwa — evidence the squad is being reshaped in both directions, and that the wage bill has to balance.
What happens next
Expect noise rather than resolution over the weekend. The Nottingham Post’s Friday-morning scene-setter framed a “£50m signing”, a “key trio” staying put and Glasner’s priority being met as the dream end to the window — a useful reminder that this is currently the best case, not the base case.
The realistic reads are these. If Chelsea want a clean sale, whoever moves first and highest wins, and talkSPORT’s frontrunner line suggests that is not currently Forest. If Chelsea will take a loan with an option, Forest’s pitch — guaranteed minutes as the single striker in a 3-4-2-1, at a club with no European fixtures to rotate around — is genuinely strong. And if nothing happens, Wood starts the season as the No 9 and the Reds go again in January.
Glasner, for his part, sounded like a man focused on Saturday rather than the market. “I’m looking forward to a fantastic atmosphere,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham this week.
The verdict
The Liam Delap Nottingham Forest story is real, it is sourced across five outlets inside 24 hours, and it is now competitive in a way it was not on Monday. Forest need the player more than Leeds or Everton do, given the shape Glasner plays and the thinness behind Wood — but needing a player most has never been the same as signing him. Stay with our Nottingham Forest striker transfer coverage for every development before the window shuts.
