Ipswich struck gold on “wrecking-ball” who’s a £100m talent in the making

It was another tough day at the office for Ipswich Town last Sunday.

For a while, it looked as if Kieran McKenna’s side would come away from their game against Wolverhampton Wanderers with all three points and close the gap on survival.

Unfortunately, the visitors staged a late comeback, and now it’s really starting to look like next season will see the Suffolk side return to the Championship.

However, they certainly have the players to bounce right back, and if they are forced to sell, they’ll make a pretty penny, especially off one star who’s been compared to an international ace valued at over £100m.

Ipswich’s biggest sales

So, before talking about the player who could easily become Ipswich’s biggest-ever sale, it’s worth examining those who currently make up the list, such as Tyrone Mings.

Market Movers

Football FanCast’s Market Movers series explores the changing landscape of the modern transfer market. How much is your club’s star player or biggest flop worth today?

The Aston Villa star joined the club for just £10k from non-league Chippenham Town in 2013 and would go on to make 63 appearances for the Tractor Boys, scoring once and providing eight assists.

Then, in the summer of 2015, Bournemouth paid a whopping £8m for his services, which equates to a massive 79900% increase on what he originally cost the Suffolk side – talk about wheeling and dealing.

One of the other most expensive sales in the club’s history was of striker Connor Wickham.

The Englishman was an academy product and, after making his first team debut in the 08/09 season, went on to score 15 goals and provide four assists in 72 appearances.

It was in the summer of 2011 that Sunderland paid an initial fee of around £8.1m for the centre-forward’s services, which, again, netted the Blues a hefty profit.

However, if the club are forced to sell some of their stars this summer, then there is one who, thanks to his form and comparisons to other top players, could net them a fortune.

The star who could be Ipswich’s biggest sale

While there are several top-quality players in Ipswich’s squad, it will likely come as no surprise that the one we are talking about is Liam Delap.

The former Manchester City star joined the club for around £20m in the summer and has since racked up a sensational haul of 12 goals and two assists in just 30 Premier League games.

Such a brilliant rate of return has not only caught the interest of other top sides, like Manchester United, but also seen the 22-year-old “wrecking-ball,” as dubbed by Sky Sports reporter Lewis Jones, compared to another of Europe’s most exciting strikers, Benjamin Sesko.

The comparison stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one and, in this instance, has concluded that the Slovenian is the ninth most similar striker to the Englishman.

The best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, key passes, crosses, goal-creating actions, ball recoveries and more, all per 90.

However, while the comparison to a Champions League striker is nice in and of itself, it’s also encouraging regarding Delap’s value.

For example, the CIES Football Observatory values the former RB Salzburg star at a whopping €116.6m, which converts to about £100m, and if the Blues’ ace is so statistically similar, why shouldn’t his price tag be?

Ultimately, while going down and losing their best player is far from ideal, Ipswich can at least rest assured that if they sell Delap this summer, he will undoubtedly become their most expensive departure of all time.

Related

McKenna could be brewing his next Hutchinson in “special” Ipswich star

Kieran McKenna could get more out of this Ipswich Town ace in the Championship.