EXCLUSIVE: Inside Liverpool’s plan to sign Liam Delap

Liverpool has become an elite finishing school for top young British and Irish prospects in recent times.

Whether it’s producing players for the first team or else developing talents that can eventually be sold on, the Reds have a strong track record.

READ MORE: Liverpool want to REPLACE Darwin Nunez with former Manchester City star

The likes of Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah are mainstays in the senior matchday squads - not to mention Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Caoimhin Kelleher further back - while around £10 million was banked through the sale of Bobby Clark to Red Bull Salzburg last summer.

Among the current crop, Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni have been identified as first-team stars of the future while there is even more promise on show when you consider Trent Kone-Doherty, Ranel Young and others.

Liverpool are capable of providing an established template for youngsters in search of a path towards a top-level career.

Liverpool snare Solanke

Liverpool pulled off one of the most sensational free transfer coups of the last decade back in 2017 for a then-19-year-old Dominic Solanke. At the expiration of his Chelsea contract, the striker was convinced to join Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool revolution.

A tribunal fee meant Liverpool ended up paying only £3m for Solanke, who has since earned the club further fees through transfers to Bournemouth and Tottenham. Sold to the Cherries for £19m, Solanke moved to Spurs last summer for around £65m.

With Liverpool owed 20 percent of any sell-on profits arising from that deal, it’s been estimated that the club have profited by around £25m in total for a player who scored just once in 27 appearances overall.

Even so, had things worked out differently for Solanke there is every chance he could be leading the line for the Reds these days. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be and Liverpool are STILL pursuing a long-term successor to Roberto Firmino at centre-forward.

However, the club doesn’t always get its own way with young talents. It was revealed earlier this week that Liverpool were interested in signing the Ipswich forward Liam Delap.

A scorer of seven goals in 18 Premier League games thus far for the Tractor Boys, the 21-year-old is seen as a player of immense potential and could well end up replacing Darwin Nunez in Arne Slot’s attack.

That’s if Manchester City refrain from attempting to re-sign their academy talent, who Pep Guardiola sold to Ipswich for £19m last summer. As well as a sell-on fee, City are also reported to have a buy-back clause. But with Erling Haaland in the line-up, it’s unlikely Delap would have his chances at the Etihad.

Liam Delap interest REVEALED

But Anfield Watch can reveal that Liverpool intended to repeat their Solanke trick for Delap back when he was a youth team player at City’s Elite Development Squad, having caught the eye of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

The German was ‘bought in’ on the forward, according to sources, after the club’s scouting team alerted him to Delap’s talents. Moreover, Klopp was even ready to integrate Delap into the first-team picture straightaway despite his tender years.

Signed by City from Derby County in 2019, Delap was already a City first-team player by 2020 before embarking on a series of second-tier loans to kickstart his senior career with Stoke City, Preston and Hull.

Liverpool were denied their opportunity to get Delap for a knockdown fee while still in his teens, potentially missing out on a huge bargain.

Delap’s development however means that he will likely come with a so-called Premier League tax should the Reds opt to make an attempt to sign him.

But with the club’s track record for investing in and developing young players, his future would surely be in safe hands at Anfield.

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