Liam Delap stands alone as the classic English No 9 of the future

Improbable hype around the Ipswich forward is growing as he faces the club that reared and discarded him

This season: one of the best strikers in the Premier League. Last season: not in the Premier League, and if we’re being honest not even really a striker. Kieran McKenna remembers Liam Delap coming to Portman Road with Hull late 2023 and starting on the right wing: trying to use his pace to beat the offside trap, trying to get in behind and fashion chances for Aaron Connolly, and mostly failing to do either. Hull lost 3-0.

The blooming of Delap for Ipswich under McKenna has been one of the unlikelier underdog yarns of recent months. Until recently, this was another young, gifted age-group forward whose career appeared to be meandering towards frustration, another item of floating big-club debris trying to pick up whatever scraps were left on the table. We’ve seen this film before. It ends with a series of unsatisfying Championship loans, three moderately successful seasons in League One and then a long extended dotage recording podcasts.

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