Pundit says recent Chelsea signing “isn’t working”, names the player they should’ve got instead

Former Aston Villa star Gabriel Agbonlahor has criticised Liam Delap’s decision to join Chelsea last summer as he seems to be struggling for the Blues.

Delap impressed at Ipswich Town last season, scoring 12 goals in 37 Premier League games for a weak side that ended up getting relegated.

It looked like Delap could surely have it in him to make the step up to a bigger club after managing to stand out in that environment, but it’s just not happened for him at Chelsea.

The 22-year-old has just one league goal in 15 appearances for CFC so far this season, and Agbonlahor believes this move came too soon for him.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Agbonlahor said that although he rates Delap, he felt in the summer like this big move came too soon for him, and that he should have gone to a club like Everton instead.

The pundit also suggested that Chelsea would have been better off signing a proven big name like Victor Osimhen for the striker role instead of Delap.

“No, this isn’t working. I said when he joined Chelsea that I thought he should have gone to a team like Everton,” Agbonlahor said.

“Develop there for a couple of years and then make the big move to top-six side. I think the jump from Ipswich to Chelsea was too much.

“When I look at him as a striker, I like him – he can hold up the ball well, he’s a good finisher, but he just doesn’t look sharp enough for the top level of the Premier League.

“Someone like Osimhen was the striker they should have gone out and got.”

Chelsea have had a lot of problems signing strikers down the years, with so many big names turning out to be flops.

Nicolas Jackson looked promising when he first joined, but failed to develop, and is now out on loan at Bayern Munich, while Delap has not looked like an upgrade at all.

Going further back down the years, others like Timo Werner, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Romelu Lukaku, Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain, Radamel Falcao, and Fernando Torres also struggled to live up to expectations at Stamford Bridge.

Delap is still young and could have a big future in the game, but he’ll have to improve quickly or he might not get many more opportunities for Chelsea.

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