Chelsea are set to complete the signing of young striker Liam Delap from Ipswich Town.

The Blues have already triggered the release clause of Delap, which stands at £30m.

Ipswich Town chairman Mark Ashton has addressed Liam Delap’s €30 million release clause amid Chelsea interest, and why it has turned our this way.

He said: “Let’s be really clear, when you are signing players from a Premier League football club as a newly-promoted Premier League football club, young or old, they’re very nervous about being stuck in a Championship club.

“Because the stats show that newly promoted clubs often go straight back down. So the contracts are always heavily negotiated.

“The reality is that when there’s a high profile player who is wanted by several clubs you get presented with a term sheet – ‘those are the terms for the club’ and ‘those are the terms for the player’.

“You’re told, ‘If you want to talk to the player and give your pitch to sign him you have to agree to those terms because if you don’t then there are six other clubs who will agree’. We speak to other clubs, we know the market, so we know that that’s not lies.”