Chelsea have agreed to sell Liam Delap to Nottingham Forest in a deal that could pocket the Blues all of £50million.
Forest were in contact with Delap’s representatives on Monday and had shown a keenness to sign the English striker.
Standard Sport understands talks between the clubs followed and Forest are set to sign the Chelsea striker for £45m plus a further £5m in add-ons.
A sale of that magnitude will be viewed as a success by Chelsea, who ambitiously placed a valuation of £50m on the player this summer once they decided they were willing to sell him.
Chelsea’s preference was always a sale rather than a loan for the 23-year-old, who struggled in his debut season for the Blues last term.
It is understood Ipswich agreed a 20 per cent sell-on clause on any profit Chelsea made by selling Delap. That will net the Tractor Boys around £3m.
He joined Chelsea ahead of the 2025 Club World Cup after the Blues beat off interest from Manchester United and Everton to sign him from Ipswich Town after triggering his £30m relegation release clause.
Chelsea are therefore expected to turn a profit on the former England youth international.
Delap found starts hard to come by in the Premier League and Champions League last season due to a mixture of injury issues and the strong form of another summer 2025 signing in the form of Joao Pedro.
He leaves the club having scored just three goals and assisted five in 47 appearances across all competitions.
His chances of featuring regularly for Chelsea in the 2026/27 season have been hurt by the summer signing of the highly-rated Emmanuel Emegha.
Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson are both expected to follow him out of the club.
