The Search for England’s Next No.9: Delap's Journey

The search for England’s next No.9 has been running for years. It still has no clear answer.

For a while, many inside the game thought they’d found him. As a graduate of Manchester City’s academy, then a breakout talent on loan at Ipswich in the Premier League, Delap was talked about as the natural heir to Harry Kane. Strong, direct, ruthless in youth football – the pathway looked obvious.

It hasn’t been anything like that.

A £30 million move to Chelsea was supposed to be the launchpad. Instead, it became a stall. Delap left Stamford Bridge with a FIFA Club World Cup winner’s medal but only three goals from 47 appearances in all competitions. For a centre-forward tipped for the top, that return hurt. His reputation dimmed, his confidence took a hit, and the narrative around him shifted from “when” to “if”.

Forest, though, saw something others were starting to forget.

They made him their £50m record signing in the summer of 2026, a bold statement from a club determined to grow, and from a player desperate to reset his career. Early signs at the City Ground have been encouraging. Delap is already off the mark, throwing his weight around up front, stretching defences, playing with the kind of aggression and purpose that once made him such a talked-about prospect.

This is what he’s needed: games, trust, and a manager willing to live with the rough edges while the sharpness returns. Strikers live on rhythm and belief. If the goals start to flow on the banks of the Trent, the conversation around Delap changes again – this time in a direction he has always expected.

Because beyond club form lies the bigger question: England.

Delap has 12 caps at U21 level, but no senior call-up yet. With Kane still churning out goals at 33, the urgency has been easy to park. England’s captain has already smashed the national scoring record, with 85 goals to his name, and he is hunting down three figures and Peter Shilton’s all-time appearance record. Four more caps and he stands alongside the legendary goalkeeper. A few more after that and he stands alone.

At some point, though, the day will come when Kane walks away from the Three Lions. When he does, he leaves a crater through the middle of Gareth Southgate’s team sheet. Right now, there are not many obvious candidates ready to step into that space. That’s why Delap’s resurgence at Forest matters. That’s why his name keeps coming up.

He is not alone. Aston Villa’s 17-year-old prodigy Brian Madjo is another young striker being pushed into the spotlight before he has even had time to settle into senior football. England are not short of talent, but they are short of clarity about who carries the No.9 shirt into the next era.

Former England striker Bobby Zamora, speaking to GOAL in association with BetWright Premier League betting, did not pretend to have the answer.

“I really don't know,” he admitted when asked who could follow Kane. “Harry Kane is extremely, extremely special. There aren't many of him and to try and fill his boots is firstly going to be a very, very tall task. I don't know who that person is that's going to come in.”

Pressed on Delap’s chances, Zamora’s intrigue was clear.

“Potentially Delap. I'm interested to see how he takes the knock of the Chelsea situation. I actually thought he was going to be something really special. He's taken a little bit of a knock and I'm interested to see how he copes with that from the trajectory that he was on, aiming for the stars, taking a blip with injuries and inconsistencies and not as many goals as he probably would have liked at Chelsea. But yeah, he's potentially one.

“I think he needs to fit into the right sort of team. He has to fit into the right sort of team, but Harry's a very hard one to follow.”

That, in essence, is Delap’s challenge. Forest must be that “right team”. The City Ground must be the place where he proves the Chelsea chapter was a detour, not a dead end.

If he can turn raw promise back into end product, the England door will open. Not because there is a ready-made Kane clone – there isn’t – but because someone has to take on the responsibility. Someone has to walk into the void the day the record-breaking captain steps aside.

Delap believes he can be that man. Now he has the platform. The rest of the season will tell whether the heir to “King Kane” was just a story told too early, or the first line of a career that’s finally ready to catch up with its billing.