Glance through some of the top-scoring young centre-forwards in European football, and you will see many a West Ham United target amongst a variety of Premier League-linked hitmen.
According to reports, West Ham are willing to break their transfer record to bring Porto’s broad-shouldered powerhouse Samu Omorodion to the London Stadium. The former Atletico Madrid starlet very nearly joined Chelsea last summer, and has gone on to plunder 24 goals over in Portugal.
West Ham have been linked with Hugo Ekitike of Eintracht Frankfurt, too. Strasbourg sensation Emanuel Emegha is on Graham Potter’s wishlist as well.
Add Liam Delap to the picture, and you have four extremely exciting centre-forwards – all under the age of 22 – who find themselves in the running to become West Ham United’s next number nine.
Ipswich’s Liam Delap tipped to join West Ham over Manchester United
Of course, whether they really want to become West Ham United’s next number nine is another matter entirely. Without European football, and considering that the London Stadium has become a graveyard in recent years for reliable goalscorers, Samu, Ekitike and Emegha could be forgiven for giving that claret and blue shirt a wide berth.
Delap, meanwhile, is understood to prefer a club offering Champions League football. Given even the Conference League is well out of West Ham’s reach, the Ipswich Town talisman feels like a pipe dream at best heading into the summer.
Yet, speaking on talkSPORT, former Aston Villa captain Gabriel Agbonlahor cannot shake the feeling that Delap and West Ham may be a match made in heaven.
While Manchester United are reportedly leading the race for the Man City academy graduate, West Ham are not the only club renowned for wasting the potential of gifted centre-forwards.
Delap only needs look at the decline of Rasmus Hojlund, Agbonlahor suggests, while arguing that an athletic, physically imposing striker may well be the solution to Potter’s striking woes.
“If I were him, I would not be going [to Manchester United] at the moment. I would not,” Agbonlahor begins. “I wouldn’t stay at Ipswich [either]. I would go to a West Ham.
“Go and prove yourself at a West Ham, the next step. They need a striker, Ferguson will go back to Brighton. He hasn’t worked out. They are desperate for a striker.”
Premier League legend Alan Shearer is a huge fan of £30m Delap
A relative late bloomer, Delap scored more goals during Ipswich’s relegation season out of the Premier League [12] than he managed in the entire 2023/24 Championship season with Hull City [eight in 31 games].
Whether he proves to be a classic case of the one-season wonder, only time will tell.
Yet, the confidence and the brutality with which Delap has gone about his business in the top flight paints the picture of a centre-forward with the raw potential and the natural attributes to become something rather special.
Delap is available for £30 million after Ipswich Town’s relegation, as well. Meaning, he can be snapped up for a fraction of the fee Porto and Frankfurt will demand for Samu and Ekitike respectively.
“As a centre-forward, I always said to myself that you have to be aggressive,” Newcastle and England legend Alan Shearer told the BBC back in January, watching Delap crash home a penalty during a 2-2 draw with Fulham.
“You have to come off the pitch and ask yourself if you’ve give the centre-halves a tough afternoon. There is no doubt that he can say that after this game.
“He held the ball up, he ran in behind and when his team were under pressure he won free-kicks to ease that pressure. He was a nuisance to play against. I loved his aggression right from the off.
“He has got eight goals this season [at the time of writing] and Ipswich have only scored 20 themselves. That tells you how impressive he has been. You’ve got a really confident, young footballer who is only going to get better.
“We’re not blessed with English strikers and there’s no doubt Thomas Tuchel will have a good look at him.”
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