LONDON: Chelsea beat off competition from Premier League rivals to sign English striker Liam Delap from Ipswich on Wednesday for a reported fee of £30 million ($41 million)
Delap, 22, scored 12 Premier League goals during his sole season at Portman Road but could not prevent Ipswich making an immediate return to the Championship.
Manchester United and Everton were also reportedly willing to meet the buyout clause in the England under-21 international’s contract.
But Chelsea have won the race for the former Manchester City forward, bolstering their attacking options ahead of the Club World Cup in the United States, starting later this month.
“I understand the stature of this club and can see the trajectory it is on with these players and the head coach,” said Delap, who has signed a six-year contract, in a Chelsea statement.
“It’s going to be an incredible place for me to develop, and I hope to achieve amazing things here and help the club win more trophies.”
The Blues finished fourth in the Premier League and will return to the Champions League next season after a two-year absence.
And Enzo Maresca’s men last week beat Real Betis 4-1 in the Conference League final to secure a trophy in the Italian manager’s first season in charge.
In mid-December Chelsea were within touching distance of eventual Premier League champions Liverpool before hitting a rocky patch.
They finished the season strongly, securing a top-five spot on the final day of the season but were hamstrung by their lack of a clinical number nine.
Senegal international Nicolas Jackson scored just 10 times in 30 Premier League appearances, while Christopher Nkunku looks set to leave the club after an underwhelming two-year spell.
Delap, the son of former Stoke midfielder Rory Delap, began his career at Manchester City but struggled to break into Pep Guardiola’s star-studded first team.
After loan spells in the second tier with Stoke, Preston and Hull, he was snapped up by Ipswich in a deal worth up to £20 million after they won promotion to the Premier League a year ago.
Delap was one of the few success stories for the Tractor Boys during a difficult season as they were relegated back to the Championship with just 22 points.
Chelsea will face Flamengo, LAFC and ES Tunis in the group stages of the Club World Cup, which gets underway on June 14.
Chelsea win race to sign Ipswich striker Delap
https://arab.news/25gfy
Chelsea win race to sign Ipswich striker Delap
Aston Martin says its car risks giving drivers ‘nerve damage’ and can’t finish F1 season-opener
- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage
MELBOURNE: Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.
Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.
Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.
“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.
“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”
Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.
He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.
Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.
“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.
“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short.
“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”
Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.
But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.
