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Everton are reportedly in discussions over a move for Chelsea striker Liam Delap, with the Blues placing a firm £40m to £50m price tag on the 23-year-old forward, according to a report from journalist Ben Jacobs on X. Chelsea sources are holding firm at £50m, though the interested clubs, including Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, believe £40m is a more realistic conclusion to any negotiation. Everton join race for Chelsea’s £40m outcast as Forest and Leeds also interested Delap joined Chelsea in 2025 from Ipswich Town in a £30m deal that has, at this point, produced painfully little return. The 2025/26 season was a disaster by any honest measure: two goals, zero assists across 35 appearances in all competitions, and a solitary Premier League goal from 28 games. New Chelsea head coach Xabi Alonso has made some decisive moves, stripping Delap of the No. 9 shirt and sending him to train away from the senior squad alongside other out-of-favour players. The message from Stamford Bridge couldn’t be clearer. Chelsea want him gone. Delap himself apparently rejected a move to Italian club Como, preferring a return to the north of England. That personal preference narrows the field considerably, and it places Everton squarely in the frame alongside Forest and Leeds United. T4O take: Should Everton actually do this? No. And the numbers make that case loudly, without much room for argument. £40m on a striker who registered one Premier League goal last season isn’t a calculated risk; it’s a reckless one. David Moyes has a long-standing admiration for Delap’s physical profile, but admiration doesn’t fill nets. Delap won just 39.1% of his total duels last season and lost possession 48 times, which means senior Premier League centre-backs handled him comfortably. For a supposed target man, that’s a damning statistic. Everton’s PSR constraints make the financial logic worse. Their current strikers, Beto and Thierno Barry, combined for 17 goals last season, a respectable enough return that doesn’t exactly scream “we need a £40m upgrade.” Spending that kind of capital on a player Chelsea just froze out would cripple Everton’s capacity to address other urgent squad gaps. Moyes has built careers on getting the best from physical forwards, but a reclamation project at this price point, with that recent record, serves nobody at Goodison. The wiser move is to walk away.