HARRY KANE’S heir Liam Delap has been warned: Choose your next club carefully.
Delap will be a summer target for top-flight giants, regardless of whether he is able to help Ipswich pull off a great escape.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink knows from working as a strikers coach under ex-England boss Gareth Southgate how few No 9s there are in the domestic game — and why £50million-rated Delap catches the eye.
But the ex-hitman told SunSport: “With Delap, I know big clubs are looking at him.
“Ipswich look like they are going down. He needs to stay in the Premier League.
“If he’s playing in a more established Premier League team, what can he deliver?
“It’s important that he plays. If he’s going to be second choice — if I’m his agent, I’d advise him not to go.”
Hasselbaink, 52, scored 127 Prem goals for Leeds, Chelsea, Middlesbrough and Charlton.
The Dutchman’s career in this country overlapped with a number of English centre-forwards — Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole, Jermain Defoe, Michael Owen and Les Ferdinand.
But English No 9s are a dying breed. Under-21 ace Delap was bubbling with enthusiasm after training with Three Lions captain Harry Kane for the first time last week.
Between Delap, 22, and Kane, 31, there are not a lot of international-level English centre-forwards.
New Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel picked Dominic Solanke and Marcus Rashford, both 27, ahead of Delap, with 29-year-old Ollie Watkins injured.
Hasselbaink rates Watkins and Solanke highly.
But he told Gambling Zone: “They need to show consistency to put pressure on Harry Kane.
“Kane needs to feel his place can be taken. That is healthy.”
Delap is the third highest-scoring English-man in the Prem, with ten, behind Cole Palmer (14) and Watkins (13).
Kevin Betsy was Delap’s head coach for four years with England’s youth teams.
During Betsy’s time at the FA, it was recognised that English football was not producing as many centre-forwards as before and he conducted his own study into the issue.
Betsy recognised aspects of the academy system were hampering the emergence of more strikers like Delap.
First, there was a broader backlash against early developers like Delap, who dominated in youth football.
Some coaches — in their determination to give smaller, more technical, youngsters the chance to blossom later — went too far the other way.
Betsy, now a first-team coach at QPR, said “The result was a lot of No 10s were created, like Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, and not so many No 9s.”
Many clubs are now aware of that issue and of the need for more striker-specific coaching.
And Hasselbaink said: “The good old-fashioned No 9s are not in fashion.
“But because football is always in cycles, they will come back.”
Until they do, players like Delap will attract huge attention — and fees to match.
For more, go to gamblingzone.com/uk/the-zone/sports/jimmy-floyd-hasselbaink-exclusive/
Read the full article here
