Chelsea’s transfer strategy has received a lot of scrutiny, but you have to say it looks like they’ve done brilliant work with the Liam Delap deal.

A year after signing Delap for £30m, the Blues are now closing in on a deal to sell him to Nottingham Forest for £50m.

That’s according to BBC Sport, who report that Delap’s departure should go through this week, with the 23-year-old set for a medical and contract signing with Forest.

Delap was undoubtedly a major flop at Chelsea, scoring only three goals in 47 appearances in total, and just one in 28 Premier League matches last season.

For the west London giants to now be making a £20m profit on such a disappointing player shows that their is a method to the madness of some of their transfer business.

Liam Delap in action for Chelsea (Photo by Aziz Karimov/Getty Images)

Liam Delap flopped for Chelsea but was still a fine investment

Chelsea maybe didn’t get the player they were expecting when they signed Delap from Ipswich Town, but in today’s market he still looked pretty cheap at just £30m.

Even if CFC fans will be disappointed that this signing didn’t do more to strengthen their squad, it was perhaps always likely that they’d be able to sell him for a profit later on.

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In other words, it was a win-win for Chelsea, who would either land themselves a star for the future, or someone they could still convince mid-table Premier League clubs to fork out big money for.

Without a release clause at Ipswich, it’s perfectly easy to imagine that Delap could have moved for somewhere closer to £50m, and one underwhelming year at Stamford Bridge shouldn’t necessarily put smaller clubs off.

Even if the England Under-21 international isn’t quite at the level to play for a club with top four ambitions, he’s still young enough that he can turn his career around and make a really positive impact for a club like Forest.