ENZO Maresca believes new Chelsea signing Liam Delap is a future England No.9.
The Blues bought Delap, 22, from Ipswich Town for £30million in the ‘mini’ transfer window at the start of June.
England are in need of a long-term successor to Harry Kane, with a shortage of centre-forwards coming through in Delap’s age bracket, when the current Three Lions skipper started to establish himself in the national team.
Delap scored twelve goals in 37 Premier League appearances last season for a side that were relegated to the Championship.
Maresca and Delap have worked together before, when the forward scored 24 goals to help Manchester City under-23s win the league in 2021.
Delap pulled out of England under-21 duty at the European Championships to join the Blues for their Club World Cup campaign, which starts against Los Angeles FC on Monday.
“I said Liam can be England’s number nine when we faced Ipswich,” Maresca said.
“Now he is a Chelsea player, I’m going to say again, I don’t have any doubt that he can be in the future England number nine.
“We won with Manchester City’s under-23s – he scored 24, 25 goals that season – so he knows exactly what we can give him. I know what Liam can give us. It’s a win-win. We like Liam, Liam likes us, so it was an easy conversation.”
Meanwhile, Maresca is confident the club will sign a winger this summer.
Chelsea paid £5million to not make Jadon Sancho’s loan move permanent as he went back to Manchester United.
Chelsea have reportedly had a £42m bid for English winger Jamie Gittens rejected by Borussia Dortmund.
Maresca said: ”Jadon is not with us. So for sure that is a position that probably we need to do something.
“Also because, Misha [Mudryk] is not with us. At this moment we have Noni [Madueke], Pedro [Neto] and Ty [George] as proper wingers. So for sure something is going to happen.”
