Update (Thursday 27 August). The structure of the deal is now clear. According to Sky Sports, Nottingham Forest have agreed a club-record transfer: £45m guaranteed plus £5m in add-ons, a package worth up to £50m. Forest’s previous record was £37.5m, set just a year ago. Delap is set to sign a five-year contract and completed his medical on Wednesday. Chris Wood, whose minutes this signing puts in doubt, publicly welcomed him by talking about “healthy competition” up front. One note before the GW2 deadline (Friday, 6.30pm): Delap is still listed as a Chelsea player in the game. If the clubs do not announce the move before the deadline, you cannot buy him as a Forest player for Gameweek 2.
Nottingham Forest have reached a verbal agreement with Chelsea to sign Liam Delap. The fee is around £45m, a medical is booked, and the 23-year-old striker said yes after speaking to Oliver Glasner. The move is not official yet — the medical and the paperwork still have to be completed.
Fabrizio Romano reported the agreement, with John Percy of the Telegraph first on the fee. Earlier the same day, Sky Sports and Yahoo Sports described advanced talks and a Chelsea valuation closer to £50m, plus the possibility of a loan with an option to buy. In the end the deal moved towards a permanent element.
What we actually know
Forest were competing with Everton, and Delap had already turned down Fulham — he wanted somewhere that guarantees regular football. The decisive factor was his conversation with Glasner, who has been pushing for reinforcements as the window closes.
The Austrian has been in charge at the City Ground since 6 July, replacing Vitor Pereira. He arrived from Crystal Palace, where he won the FA Cup, the Community Shield and, in May this year, the Conference League. He is Forest’s fifth manager in twelve months, which explains the appetite for a settled squad.
Why Delap is leaving Chelsea after one year
Chelsea paid Ipswich Town around £30m for him in the summer of 2025. He arrived as the relegated club’s top scorer with 12 goals and was billed as a striker for the future. A year on, the numbers tell a different story: reports credit him with just two goals in 41 appearances, and under Xabi Alonso he dropped so far down the order that he was training away from the first team and left out of the matchday squad.
It fits the wider rebuild we have covered all summer — Chelsea brought in Danny Welbeck and Pep Chavarría, with the squad being reshaped around a new manager.
What it means for your FPL squad
Start with Delap himself. He is still listed as a Chelsea player, priced at £5.5m, owned by 0.4% of managers, and carries an AI Rating of 58 with a sell verdict. He played no minutes in Gameweek 1.
To be fair to him: that rating is about his situation, not his quality. Our model rewards proven minutes, and Delap has none — the same mechanic that keeps players returning from long layoffs or arriving from abroad rated low. If he starts regularly at Forest, the rating will climb on its own.
The more urgent question is who this signing affects right now. Forest are not spending £45m on a substitute.
| Forward | Price | AI Rating | Ownership | GW1 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Igor Jesus | £6.0m | 79 | 4.0% | 90 |
| Chris Wood | £6.0m | 58 | 1.7% | 28 |
| Arnaud Kalimuendo | £5.5m | 42 | 0.1% | 1 |
| Liam Delap (still CHE) | £5.5m | 58 | 0.4% | 0 |
Igor Jesus is the one with real ownership — roughly one in twenty-five managers has him. He played the full 90 minutes in Gameweek 1 and is the highest-rated Forest forward in our AI Player Rankings. His starting place is the one that suddenly looks less safe. Chris Wood managed only 28 minutes in GW1 with a rating of 58, and Kalimuendo came on for a single minute — the competition up front is thin, which is exactly why Forest are paying this kind of money.
At Chelsea, nothing changes. João Pedro (rating 88, owned by 65.9%) scored 11 points in Gameweek 1 and is the undisputed first-choice striker, with Welbeck at 79 behind him. Delap was not playing anyway, so his exit frees up no minutes worth chasing.
Is he worth buying
Not for this Gameweek. Forest have a hard run: away to Liverpool on Saturday, then Tottenham at home and a trip to Aston Villa. Gameweek 5 at home to Coventry is the first realistic window. There is also match sharpness to consider — a player who has spent weeks training away from the squad rarely goes straight into 90-minute performances.
At £5.5m he belongs on a watchlist rather than in a deadline-day transfer. Give it two Gameweeks and see how many minutes he actually gets.
While you are checking your squad: Morgan Gibbs-White (rating 85, 10.1% ownership) is carrying a knee note and a 75% chance of playing. The full list of flags is in our Injury Centre.
How much time is left
The transfer window shuts at 11pm UK time on 1 September. The FPL Gameweek 2 deadline comes first, at 6.30pm on Friday 28 August. If the transfer is announced before Friday, the game will move Delap to Nottingham Forest and his rating will start recalculating against a new club and a new fixture run.
Status as of Tuesday 25 August: verbal agreement in place, medical booked, no official confirmation from either club. We will update this article when the move is announced. Sources: Fabrizio Romano, John Percy (Telegraph), Sky Sports, Yahoo Sports.