Yes, £12.6m for a 26-year-old winger who played 33 Serie A games for Juventus last season and was linked with £100m+ moves to the Premier League less than three years ago sounds like a great deal.
Too good a deal to pass up some would say and it was revealed on Monday that Liverpool have made contact with Juventus over a possible deal for Federico Chiesawho may very well turn out to be the only new addition to Arne Slot’s squad for this season as Giorgi Mamardashvili is heading back to Valencia on loan having completed his move to Anfield.
“With the window open we’ll always be opportunistic if we can,” Richard Hughes said in his first interview as Liverpool’s new sporting director. But while Chiesa certainly was a very good footballer and may well still be a good one, even at £12.6m his feels less like an astute transfer than one that pangs of desperation for everyone involved.
From a position of ignorance, having watched very little of Chiesa over the last couple of seasons, £12.6m seems like nothing. And we assume the majority of Liverpool fans, like us, are still largely basing their opinions on his displays at Euro 2020, after which he was tipped for a mega-money move to the Premier League.We get it. Even having seen his mediocre performances in Germany this summer, the hope will be that Chiesa can rediscover his previous form – there’s a world class footballer in there and who’s to say Arne Slot’s not the man to reinvigorate him? But £12.6m is so, so low.
Liverpool should be asking why Juventus want such a modest fee for an Italy international valued at roughly three times that amount.
Yes, he’s into the last year of his contract, Juventus would rather not lose him for nothing next summer and could do with his £150,000 per week off the wage bill, but their asking price climbdown is quite extraordinary and should be sounding alarm bells for Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes.
They wanted £35m at the beginning of the window, then £30m, then £25m, all the way down to £12.6m, which Barcelona still weren’t willing to pay, by the way, with Liverpool now the transfer patsies as Chiesa and the Old Lady’s only remaining recourse.
Arsenal could really do with a winger but would rather run Bukayo Saka into the ground than sign him. Tottenham have had a look and said no. Even Chelsea don’t want him.
Juventus can’t wait to be rid and Chiesa can’t wait to leave. He’ll say it’s a dream to move to Anfield if and when it does happen, but he would have gone to any club willing to pay his wages and rather than waiting to move on a free transfer, when he would also likely have received a hefty signing on fee, he’s ready to sit on the bench and watch Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz for a year ahead of the inevitable signing of Salah’s proper replacement next summer.
Because if Slot’s opening two games are anything to go by, Chiesa’s not going to play very much football.
The Liverpool boss made one change from Ipswich to Brentford, Ibrahima Konate for Jarrell Quansah, which everyone saw coming after the young Englishman was taken off at half-time in the opening game. He’s made it abundantly clear that Diaz, Salah and Diogo Jota is his preferred front three, with backup forwards Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez seeing just 29 and 18 minutes respectively across the two games.
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It’s hard to see Chiesa anywhere but sixth in that pecking order and a significant Salah injury looks to be his only chance of a significant run of games; the Egyptian’s missed just 13 games through injury in his seven seasons at Anfield.
Chiesa on the other hand has had 17 injury lay-offs in his four seasons at Juventus, missing 90 games in total, so there’s every chance if Salah is injured, Chiesa will be too, picking up his £150,000 per week from the treatment table as Liverpool’s fifth highest earner.
On the surface, at £12.6m a move for Chiesa looks like a smart bit of business, but scratch just slightly beneath the surface and the transfer is exposed for what it is: a desperate ploy to placate supporters with the addition of a big-name player that other clubs have steered clear of for reasons including but not limited to his injury record, Juventus’ desire to be rid of him, Chiesa’s desperation to be anywhere else and his general decline from a high point falsified by a run of seven games at an international tournament three years ago, only four of which he started.
This isn’t an ‘opportunistic’ signing, it’s a pointless and desperate one by a club that needs to be seen to have done something.
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