Nottingham Forest's bold £40m next transfer could be their most risky deal yet

Few Premier League sides have had a stranger summer than Nottingham Forest. The unexpected sacking of manager Vítor Pereira just weeks after he had achieved his mission to keep the club in the top flight, and his subsequent replacement by Oliver Glasner, have contributed towards a distinct sense of unpredictability – while the many lingering questions concerning their work in the transfer window haven’t made anything much clearer.

With a little over three weeks to go before the new season begins, Forest have only added one new face, free agent Xavier Schlager, despite the club record sale of Elliot Anderson. Several deals are in the pipeline, but it’s difficult to get a firm picture of what Glasner’s squad will look like when they face Leeds on 22 August after a packed summer schedule which includes no fewer than nine friendly matches.

While the midfield rebuild necessitated by Anderson’s departure will generate most of the headlines, there are plenty of questions to be answered about Nottingham Forest’s striker situation – and those questions will only be multiplied by reports that the club are interested in signing Chelsea’s Liam Delap.

Will Nottingham Forest sign Liam Delap this summer?

Delap has been made available for a transfer by Chelsea after a desperate debut season in which the 23-year-old managed just three goals in 47 appearances – and while several sides have been rumoured to be potential destinations, Nottingham Forest are starting to look like a very serious suitor.

On Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph reported that Forest were exploring a bid for Delap, who is valued at £40m by his current employers – despite the fact that he cost them just £30m a year ago, when his stock was perhaps a little higher.

Delap enjoyed a rather more promising season at Ipswich Town prior to that, when he scored 12 Premier League goals despite his side’s relegation, but his form and self-belief deserted him at Stamford Bridge and he failed to register a goal after scoring in a defeat to Fulham in early January.

Given how threatening he looked and how efficient of a finisher he proved to be at Portman Road before his disastrous year in the capital, Chelsea know that there will be other teams in the Premier League who are prepared to take a chance on him and they will justify his asking price by pointing to the five years he has left on his contract.

Whether Forest are prepared to pay full price remains to be seen, however, and it’s unclear as to how flexible Chelsea might be given that they will likely need to make some sales to comply with UEFA financial regulations. It’s also not clear as to whether Delap is only available on a permanent transfer or whether a loan deal of some description would be considered.

Several other sides have been linked with Delap, including Newcastle, Everton and Fulham, but the stories involving Nottingham Forest are as tangible as any which have emerged from the rumour mill so far. So if Delap does move to the City Ground, what would it tell us about the way the club will play or who will start up front?

What Delap interest tells us about Nottingham Forest’s 2026/27 season

Even before it became clear that Forest were considering the addition of a new centre-forward, there was something of a debate over who would spearhead Glasner’s attack this season.

The former Crystal Palace manager generally sticks to a 3-4-3 system which leaves room for just one out-and-out striker, and a pitched battle seemed to be set up between the veteran Chris Wood, who has recovered from the injury which derailed his 2025/26 campaign, and Brazil international Igor Jesus.

Wood’s absence from the club’s pre-season tour of Portugal gave Jesus the chance to stake his claim, which he has done in style so far with three goals in three games already. Although he only scored six times in his first Premier League season, form and youth seemed to be on his side against the 34-year-old Wood, who is getting long in the tooth and barely played last season.

Whoever won that contest, however, it seemed clear that the change of coach wouldn’t change the fact that Forest would play with a target man up front. Jesus and Wood have different qualities, but their physicality and link-up play unite them. The move for Delap suggests a change of focus, however.

Delap is a pacy striker capable of exploiting high defensive lines and playing off the shoulder of the last man and a very different proposition than either Jesus or Wood. The question is whether Forest are interested because they want a forward who can provide variety, because they want to change the system as a whole and need different tools, or simply because they’re signing players based on perceived talent rather than how they fit the coach’s system or philosophy.

The latter possibility would be the most worrying, but not the most surprising given how inconsistent Forest have been in the transfer market during the Marinakis years – and it’s certainly not easy to envisage how Delap would line up in Glasner’s system save as a central striker, and if Forest spend £40m on such a player they are unlikely to want him to rot on the bench while Wood and Jesus continue doing the hard yards.

Whether Delap’s arrival would suit Glasner, who preferred a traditional target man like Jean-Philippe Mateta during his spell at Selhurst Park, is no more clear than whether Forest will sign him at all. There is a lot of ground to be covered between now and a photoshoot of the former Ispwich man pretending to sign his contract for the cameras.

That ground includes deals for players like Ousmane Diomande, the impressive and technically-gifted Sporting centre-half who is expected to sign this week, and perhaps Feyenoord’s Givairo Read, a talented young right wing-back who could fill one of the more glaring holes in the squad. It will also hopefully include at least one new midfielder, given Anderson’s absence.

Still, it increasingly appears to be the case that signing Delap is now a genuine possibility, and it would be an unusual deal that creates almost as many questions as it answers. Business as usual at the City Ground, then.