Coventry City ready to rival Hull City & Ipswich to sign the next Delap

The excitement is building ahead of the start of the new season, with Coventry City, Hull City and Ipswich Town just over a week away from tasting Premier League action once more.

For Coventry, it’s a first shot at the big time in 25 years, with Frank Lampard hoping to banish a few demons himself after tricky prior spells at the likes of Chelsea and Everton.

As for Hull, the Tigers defied the odds to secure playoff success last time out, now back in the promised land for the first time since enduring relegation in 2017.

In Ipswich’s case, it’s a second promotion in three seasons, having endured a swift return to the Championship in 2024/25. At least the Tractor Boys had an impressive centre-forward that year, in the form of Liam Delap.

Assessing Coventry, Hull and Ipswich’s centre-forward options

As the case of Delap showed – with the Englishman netting 12 league goals in his sole season at Portman Road – having a reliable number nine isn’t a guarantee of survival. It certainly helps, however.

The question will be as to whether this newly-promoted trio currently boast enough firepower to stave off the drop, having seen both Sunderland and Leeds United buck the recent relegation trend last time out.

Both sides had been strengthened by the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Brian Brobbey, respectively, last summer, showcasing what is needed to mix it with the Premier League’s big boys.

At present, Coventry boast the likes of Ellis Simms and Haji Wright, the pair scoring 30 Championship goals between them last time out, albeit while rather unproven or untested at the level above.

For Hull, Sergej Jakirovic could do without a little more Oli McBurnie magic, following the Scotland striker’s 18-goal haul in 2025/26, with the Tigers notably missing out on top target, Emersonn, to Ipswich.

The 22-year-old Brazilian, who scored six Ligue 1 goals last season, joins the likes of Portman Road in Norfolk, although with doubts over George Hirst’s future under Gary O’Neil, further depth will be required.

Prising the best the Championship had to offer didn’t necessarily go to plan for Ipswich in the summer of 2024, but a repeat of the Delap wouldn’t go amiss.

The next Liam Delap could flourish in the Premier League

Be it for players, managers or clubs, moving from the Championship to the Premier League can feel like such a leap, with there often a stark difference in quality.

In Delap’s case, however, despite scoring just eight second-tier goals while on loan with Hull in 2023/24, the young Englishman proved a surprise success story in the top flight, catching the eye enough to earn a £30m move to Chelsea last year.

It hasn’t worked out since then, but that might be more to do with the Stamford Bridge chaos than Delap’s own talent, with the 23-year-old having been a real force under Kieran McKenna’s watch previously.

Perhaps it could be a repeat scenario with regard to Jay Stansfield, with Football Insider reporting that Coventry are now keeping tabs on the Birmingham City star.

As per the report, the Blues are willing to listen to offers for the 23-year-old, just two years on from forking out a bumper £15m fee to sign him from Fulham.

The suggestion is that both Hull and Ipswich are also in the mix too, with a raft of Premier League clubs queueing up to take the young Englishman out of the Championship.

Like Delap, amid his time on loan away from Manchester City, Stansfield’s best work has come in the EFL to date, memorably netting 19 goals in 2024/25 to propel the Midlands side to promotion.

As for last term, the in-demand marksman wasn’t quite as prolific, yet he still reached double figures with ten league goals, just ahead of Delap’s eight-goal return during his time at Hull.

He’s not the robust, physical frontman that Delap is, but like his compatriot, there is more to Stansfield’s game than just putting the ball in the back of the net, having also registered six assists last season, while creating 12 ‘big chances’.

It does feel too like he’s at the right stage of his career to make that step up, having only ever made four cameo appearances in the Premier League during his spell on the books at Fulham.

In Delap’s case, he only made two league outings for Man City, prior to leaving permanently for Ipswich in 2024, yet that didn’t stop him from running defences ragged that year at Portman Road.

Maybe there might be a question as to why Ipswich and co don’t try and directly rescue Delap from his Stamford Bridge hell, but considering he might fetch upwards of £40m, that seemingly appears off the table.

Turning to another rising EFL star, like Stansfield, might well prove the perfect alternative.