Almost two years after he announced himself with a goal on his senior Manchester City debut, Liam Delap finds himself in a curious situation.
On Saturday morning, multiple reports emerged that City had rejected a £16m offer from Southampton to sign the 19-year-old striker. After selling both Gavin Bazunu and Romeo Lavia to the Saints this summer and shipping out other young players too, City have no intention of selling Delap this summer.
For Delap's prospects of forging a career at City, that is clearly a good sign. The fact that they were willing to turn down a hefty sum for a player who has made just six senior appearances speaks volumes of how highly he is rated.
READ MORE: The global City fans who trekked to see them in Green Bay
And they are right to do so. Delap has an outrageous scoring record at Premier League 2 U23 level, notching 24 goals in 20 games in 2020/21 and scoring eight in 10 last season.
Perhaps more significant is that, while City would consider letting Delap leave on loan in order to gain more senior minutes, the club ideally want to keep the striker close to home. It's no secret that the very best talents in City's academy are kept in the building rather than sent on loan, largely so that they can train with the first team and get up to speed with Pep Guardiola's system and tactics. That puts them in a position to make the step up to the first-team, if and when the time is right.
That was the case with Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, and unless he insists on a loan spell, James McAtee will do the same. Now Delap looks to be edging towards that path too — but something doesn't quite add up.
Following the signings of Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, there seems little chance that Delap will be able to force his way into Guardiola's side this season. Even the next couple of seasons look like a long shot.
Given that City sanctioned the sale of Lavia for £10.5m — the deal included both sell-on and buy-back clauses — because they saw it as the right time to cash in on a player unlikely to make significant inroads into the team, it seems odd that they have not taken similar action with Delap.
Of course, there may be more to this than meets the eye. After his debut goal in September 2020, Delap's progress towards the first-team was disrupted by an injury-hit 2021/22 campaign. Perhaps there is a feeling among Guardiola and his staff that they would like to see more of Delap before cutting ties on a permanent basis, even if that risks his value dropping in the future.
Maybe City harbour more serious injury concerns about Haaland than they are willing to admit in public. If the Norwegian is unable to play more than one game a week or simply takes a while to adapt to his new team, then Delap could get more minutes than expected.
Perhaps it is as simple as Guardiola wanting to keep him around as a back-up striking option, following the departures of Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling this summer. Delap may seek a loan move before the end of the transfer window, but as he admitted last summer, there are few better places to learn the game than City.
"It’s so so good. You can absorb so much information from him," Delap said of training under Guardiola.
"He’s one of the best managers in the world and he has so much information and so much knowledge he can give you as a player. He’s so incredible. The position I am now, to be able to learn from him is such a great position to be in. I’m so grateful to be able to learn from him.
"I think the environment around the club makes you thrive and strive to be the best but with Pep, especially, playing under him there’s so much good pressure."
On the face of it, City declining to cash in on a player who has a slim chance of playing regular football over the next few seasons looks like bad business. However, there is no-doubt reasons behind the scenes for their decision. Only time will tell if they made the right one.
ALSO READ:
