Chelsea’s 2025 summer transfer window has to go down as one of the worst in the club’s recent history.

A couple of their signings worked out: Joao Pedro and Jorrel Hato. In fact, Pedro is one of the best additions Chelsea have made since being taken over by BlueCo.

But some of their other pieces of business that summer really negated that bit of good work. The likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap were disastrous signings.

Rory Delap reveals Liam Delap wanted to stay at Chelsea for five years

Gittens is still a Chelsea player so has time to turn things around, but Garnacho and Delap are no longer at the club. There is zero chance of either representing the Blues again, especially the latter, who was sold permanently in the summer. His father, Rory, has now revealed that his initial plan was to stay at Chelsea for five years or so.

Speaking on The Managers podcast, Delap senior said: “Yeah, he had two seasons on loan, then permanently to Ipswich for a year. Had a good year down there, but unfortunately they got relegated and then gets the move to Chelsea and you know that was the one to really settle down and go and have four or five years there.

“But, you know, with injury and form he didn’t have a great year unfortunately. Things were up in the air coming into pre-season and then he went away with them on the tour to Australia, came back and then was sort of training on his own. There was a group of four or five of them.”

Unlike Delap, who was sold outright, Garnacho joined Villa in a loan deal that requires certain conditions to be met before his move becomes a permanent one. Even if that does not happen, there is no way back for Garnacho at Chelsea.

The Blues spent £117m on Morgan Rogers, who has replaced Garnacho on the left-hand side of Chelsea’s attack. As for the centre-forward position, Pedro has that nailed down, which is one reason behind Delap’s exit.

Game time was going to be limited for Delap, although the 23-year-old may have got an opportunity now if he were still at the club. Pedro is injured and will not be back until after the international break.

Liam Delap’s stats at Chelsea

Delap looked like he was going to be a really good signing for Chelsea. He cost the club just £30m and made an instant impact.

Delap scored for the Blues at the Club World Cup, early in his Chelsea career, and was also quite impactful against Paris Saint-Germain in the final when he came on. However, it was all downhill after that.

The Englishman went on to score just two more goals in a blue shirt. He finished his time at Chelsea with just three goals in 47 appearances. Only one of those goals came in the Premier League despite Delap playing 28 games.

He had a conversion rate of just 2.78% after taking 36 shots to score his one and only Premier League goal for Chelsea, as per FootyStats. Delap has already bagged his first for Nottingham Forest, so he cannot do any worse at the City Ground.

Thomas Frank has backed Delap to score 12-15 goals this season. His shot conversion is going to have to be much better if that is to happen.