Chelsea have wasted no time at all in getting the 2025 summer transfer window off to a quick start. A deal for Liam Delap has been wrapped up and there is a ready list of those who could follow.
Right now, Jamie Gittens is leading that race with the club advancing in talks to bring him in before the Club World Cup,football.london understands. If it’s not Gittens then Chelsea have other options.
Both on the left wing and across the pitch, their interest in players this summer is wide-ranging. In no particular order, deals for Alejandro Garnacho, Hugo Ekitike, Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, Marc Guehi, Mike Maignan, and Jorrel Hato cannot be ruled out.
Some of these are more likely than others. Transfers for one would surely rule out another in certain areas. Another striker, for example, is possible, but two more is extremely unlikely even if Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson were to depart.
This is mainly conjecture and noise, though. Delap, on the other hand, is done. He is in position ahead of Chelsea travelling to America. Whether or not he will be there is another matter.
The 22-year-old has been named in Lee Carsley’s provisional England Under-21s squad ahead of the European Championship later this month. Delap, off the back of scoring 12 Premier League goals (almost 40% of Ipswich Town’s total) is among the biggest names in the team.
England are defending champions having won the trophy with a group including Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer, and Levi Colwill in 2023. This is Delap’s last opportunity to win the competition himself. He qualifies having been 21 at the start of the season.
Gittens, who is 20 and eligible for selection, has not been picked by Carsley. He has played 11 times for the Under-21s having first made an appearance in 2023. Whereas there is uncertainty over how Chelsea and Delap will manage summer commitments, Gittens is essentially free to join up with Maresca as soon as a deal is completed, if it is completed.
Garnacho is in the same camp. He has been told to look for a new club by Manchester United with Ruben Amorim being backed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos. He is also 20 and has been left out of the most recent Argentina squad by manager Lionel Scaloni.
Argentina have matches against Chile and Columbia coming up whilst England’s men under Thomas Tuchel play Andorra and Senegal. The Chelsea players involved will have a short gap and then meet up at Cobham before going to the Club World Cup.
The second of those games comes two days before the England Under-21s face Slovakia on June 12. All of this could impact when Delap makes his debut.
Garnacho would not be bound by the same constraints as he would be linking up immediately and could feasibly still play in Chelsea’s Club World Cup opener on June 16 in Atlanta against Los Angeles FC if signed in time.
As for Ekitike, he has withdrawn from the France Under-21 squad due to a back strain he picked up at the end of the season with Eintracht Frankfurt. A prospective move is still a long way off for Chelsea and getting things in shape in the next week would need a quick change of direction without much warning, but it does open up the 22-year-old’s summer.
Like Garnacho, he would in effect be free to join and sign before the Club World Cup, therefore becoming eligible to play in the first game and throughout the competition, injury permitting. Frankfurt’s £83million valuation is so far proving a serious obstacle.
In short, if Chelsea get transfers done before the mini-June 10 deadline then anybody not involved at the Under-21 Euros could make their debuts on June 16. For Delap, this might not work if he chooses England over Chelsea, therefore pushing his debut back to either the Club World Cup knockout stage or even later in the summer.
The transfer window opens again with business between June 17 and September 1 being the main bulk. Chelsea would not be able to play new signings after that point in the Club World Cup because they would not have made the provisional squad or final squad list submitted to FIFA before the tournament.
A maximum of 35 players can make the final squad with a minimum of 26. Up to 50 can be named in the provisional squad with a matchday limit of 26 players.
If Chelsea do sign players after the Club World Cup starts then it is not clear when their debuts would come. The club do not currently have any arranged matches with the Premier League due to start one month after the Club World Cup final on July 13.
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