David Sneyd

LIAM DELAP OPTED to join Chelsea instead of Manchester United this week, leaving a queue of clubs disappointed.

Over the course of his debut season in the Premier League, the 22-year-old emerged as one of the most in-demand young strikers in England and beyond, after scoring 12 goals.

A major reason for that was the £30 million (€35m) buyout clause in his Ipswich Town contract, activated once relegation was confirmed. It made clubs throughout Europe aware of his availability as far back as the January transfer window. Forward planning for this summer was already underway.

Delap’s rise is, of course, completely independent of the fortunes of Evan Ferguson, yet their contrasting experiences over the last 12 months have become inexorably linked as they are two strikers of similar profiles – in age and style – who have been wanted by the same clubs under different circumstances since January.

Delap’s transfer to Chelsea was finalised this week and will be confirmed in due course, but its roots can be traced back to one week over late January and early February, and a loan move that didn’t happen for Ferguson on the final day of the Premier League’s transfer window.

Confirmation from The 42’s sources has helped piece together how a tense standoff, a dramatic late approach from Manchester United, and a snap decision based on a sense of loyalty ultimately led to some of the most frustrating months of Ferguson’s career.

Brighton made it clear going into the last weekend of January that their Republic of Ireland international would be available on loan. On the same weekend, Chelsea lost 2-1 away to Manchester City and dropped to sixth, out of the Champions League places.

They’d won just once in seven as the window prepared to close whereas from 27 October to 22 December they were unbeaten in nine, winning six times and just two points off leaders Liverpool in second spot before Christmas.

The mood, and priority, changed for the powers that be at Stamford Bridge.

Prior to that dismal run, finalising exits from the club was the priority with head coach Enzo Maresca comfortable with the balance of his squad. Once results flipped, so did the thinking and when Ferguson became available, Chelsea were keen to do business.

Sam Jewell, the club’s new director of global recruitment, had arrived from Brighton and worked underneath another former Seagulls employee, Chelsea’s co-sporting director Paul Winstanley.

Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali is described as more hands-on and involved than the higher profile Todd Bohely, and he also took great interest in the Ferguson situation. When it looked like a deal for a straight loan was pretty much agreed, Brighton owner Tony Bloom is understood to have had a direct line to Eghbali on negotiations.

Terms began to change.

Brighton were keen for clauses regarding options and obligations to buy Ferguson at the end of the loan to be inserted into the agreement, whereas Chelsea were keen to stick to a straight loan and then assess their options. A loan fee, understood to be in the region of £1-2 million, also became a sticking point.

Bayer Leverkusen in Germany were understood to be strongly in the frame for Ferguson at this stage but Chelsea remained the preferred destination for the player, right up until the night before he was actually was due for a medical at West Ham.

Once it became clear that a loan deal had been quickly agreed between Brighton and the Hammers – their co-owner David Sullivan’s insistence on a straight loan with no option or obligation to buy had been accepted by Bloom – Chelsea felt the writing was on the wall.

Even though those in power at Stamford Bridge had told Ferguson and his representatives that Nicolas Jackson would remain first choice in Maresca’s preferred system, where only one striker featured, they made it clear that opportunities would be forthcoming in a side battling for Champions League qualification as well as in the Uefa Conference League.

With time ticking away in the window and Chelsea unable to make progress with Brighton, Ferguson opted for West Ham and the chance to reunite with Graham Potter, the coach who gave him his Premier League debut. Their reconnection was by no means the main draw, rather the belief that game time as a starting striker would be greater than across London.

When Chelsea pulled out, other clubs are believed to have challenged West Ham even as the medical approached. Fulham wanted to do business, and it can be revealed that Manchester United made such firm advances late in the window to try and bring Ferguson to Old Trafford that he almost reneged on his commitment to West Ham, before ultimately sticking with the Hammers as it was so far down the line.

The move proved frustrating in the extreme and Ferguson’s minutes were limited to late substitute appearances as Potter opted to first utilise Jarrod Bowen through the middle before Germany international Niclas Fullkrug, a high-profile summer arrival who will still be at the club next season, returned to fitness.

As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, Chelsea suffered a mini injury crisis of their own, losing Jackson to injury against West Ham on 3 February until 6 April, while forward Marc Guiu also picked up an injury in the same game and only returned in the Conference League final win over Real Betis earlier this week.

Ferguson always knew he would be returning to Brighton when he arrived at West Ham and, as it stands, no decision on his future will be made until he returns for pre-season. He still has four years remaining on a contract that was signed when Bloom heralded him as the club’s next £100m transfer.

Instead, he could be available on a permanent deal for less than half that. With Delap arriving, Guiu becoming more prominent and Jackson the talisman, Chelsea have no immediate plans to re-enter the race for Ferguson.

That, of course, could change depending on the market and the situation involving Napoli’s Victor Osimhen – who it’s understood has an offer worth in the region of €240,000 per week (net) to make his own loan move to Galatasaray permanent. What happens there may also determine if the Turkish giants rekindle the interest they have also shown in Ferguson previously, while Leverkusen remains a live option.

Despite his lack of game time over the last year, Ferguson is still viewed within the Premier League as a top-half calibre player, someone who is smoother technically as well as with his finishing than Delap.

“He has a chance to prove a point. I would be unhappy if he wasn’t unhappy with the current situation, the limited playing time,” Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrímsson said of Ferguson this week.

“I would think, and I know that he comes in and wants to prove a point. I know, he didn’t tell me, but I would know he would like to come to his country and show ‘this is me, I’m here’. We can see in our sessions his qualities, especially in finishing, second to none.”

Ferguson and Delap’s fortunes have been linked in the shadows for the last number of months and that came to the forefront over the last few days, when even his international future became a topic for discussion after Hallgrímsson confirmed that a meeting took place with the player about switching allegiances.

As it stands, Delap is due to link up with Lee Carsley’s England U21s for the European Championships this summer. Chelsea, however, want him available for their Club World Cup preparations as their first group game is against León in Atlanta in just over two weeks.

That is an ongoing working point, and there is an acknowledgement on Chelsea’s part of the need to respect prior arrangements.

The FAI also accept that it is unlikely that Delap will switch international allegiance at this stage, and while he may have to make a decision about withdrawing from U21 duty this summer, Hallgrímsson’s deadpan response about how talks went hints at an uphill battle to convince Chelsea’s first summer signing of choosing the Boys in Green.

“Well, he didn’t say f**k off,” Hallgrímsson said.

Delap, son of former Ireland international Rory, wanted to get involved with the Ireland underage system when he was 14 and was coming through at Derby County. Even when Manchester City brought him into their academy, he and his family made the FAI aware of his preference.

Contact was made in Dublin about his availability but nothing materialised, the lack of a response a surprising turn of events. Instead, he would play a year up for England from the age of 15 and it now seems inevitable that a senior cap for The Three Lions will come.

Stephen Kenny met with Delap and his representatives during his time in charge but a senior call-up was not on the agenda then either. He’s unlikely to become a teammate of Ferguson at international level and, as became clear since early February, they’re in very different places at club level right now too.