Manchester United target Liam Delap will see his release clause drop to £30million if Ipswich are relegated from the Premier League, according to reports. The Red Devils have been linked with the young forward with Chelsea also keen on him.
Defeat at the weekend for the Tractor Boys left them 12 points from safety with an immediate return to the Championship looking all but certain. Several of their leading lights would likely move on with interest in Delap, who has scored 12 times this term, mounting.
Delap has excelled since leaving Manchester City in a £20m deal and he could be available to any suitor for just £30m should Ipswich go down. United will no doubt be monitoring the situation closely with a striker high on their list of targets this summer.
Ruben Amorim needs to add a new frontman and Delap could be on the market for a bargain price, reports The Guardian. Ipswich will have wanted to maximise their profits having seen the Englishman develop impressively, but relegation could take that situation out of their hands.
City also have a 20 per cent sell-on clause in Delap’s contract which means Ipswich could end up making a minimal profit should the striker move on to pastures new having shown he is more than capable of cutting it in the Premier League.
United have Delap high on a shortlist that also includes Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyökeres and Napoli’s Victor Osimhen. Gyokeres was seen as a natural link given he played under Amorim in recent years, but the Swede is keen to play in the Champions League, which could rule out the Red Devils.
Chelsea meanwhile have a policy of signing young players, hence their purchases of the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in recent years. They will host Ipswich on Sunday with Delap scoring against them in the reverse fixture at Portman Road.
Jason Wilcox, United’s technical director, knows Delap well from his time at City and that could work well in their favour should they find themselves in a transfer tussle. It has been reported that those at Old Trafford are reluctant to spend huge sums on another young striker.
In successive summers they’ve signed Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee but neither has developed in the way the club anticipated. Their goal returns have been poor and this term, between them, the duo have only come up with six goals in the Premier League.
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