With the end of the transfer window fast approaching, Liverpool have finally sealed their first signing of the summer. The club confirmed the signing of Juventus and Italy star Federico Chiesa today for a cut-price fee of around £10 million.
The move came as something of a surprise, following months of speculation over a variety of players. The transfer will come as a welcome boost to fans who had been left ruing the unsuccessful pursuits of Leny Yoro and Martín Zubimendi.
Chiesa was a key man throughout Italy’s victorious Euro 2020 campaign and was seen as one of the hottest properties in European football at that time. Time out with injury has hampered his progress at Juve, with new manager Thiago Motta deeming the 26-year-old surplus to requirements.
If the player can show anything like his best form in a red shirt, the move would represent a significant coup for Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked the Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst for his reaction to the signing.
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Paul said:
“It’s all developed quickly, hasn’t it? I think it was Fabrizio Romano who broke the news on Monday evening, obviously close ties with the Italian agency of Federico Chiesa, and it’s moved along significantly.
“Chiesa’s going to be coming in to supplement what’s already there, he’s going to provide backup and competition for places at a relatively modest fee. I think it’s a really shrewd one.
“Obviously he hasn’t been at the levels that he was at in Euro 2021, when he really shot to prominence… He was a €50 million pound footballer at one stage, and I think Slot may back him and his coaching staff to get him back to that level.
“I was looking on TransferMarkt yesterday… they’ve still got his market value of €35 million, so Liverpool are getting Chiesa in for £12.5 million, initial £10 million, and that looks to be a shrewd deal.
“Liverpool have taken maybe a little bit more of a measured, strategic look at it, and very cerebrally decided that, if we give this another couple of weeks, we can get five or 10 million knocked off the price. If they’d have gone for him last month, he might have been €25 million.
“You could always second guess what a Liverpool deal was under Jürgen Klopp – certain age range, certain area of the world maybe… but it’s a totally new regime, and you can’t second guess them anymore.
“I did have reservations initially, because, in my mind, he wasn’t anywhere near, or isn’t anywhere near the player he was three years ago.
“You look into it a bit more, and you find that those injury concerns are maybe a little bit exaggerated at times – he still played 37 times last season in all competitions and scored nine goals in Serie A.
“For that price, it’s basically what Liverpool have just sold Bobby Clark for. It’s almost pretty much what they got for Solanke going to Tottenham from Bournemouth, so it just seems really, really shrewd.”
REDMEN REACTS
Good things come to those who wait! After a frustrating summer of failed transfer pursuits, several outgoings and the word ‘opportunistic’ used with wild abandon, Liverpool have finally completed a transfer. Federico Chiesa clearly has the talent to succeed in a red shirt, but alarm bells have sounded over his chequered injury history. Hopefully, the talented Italian has been able to put those days behind him – he made 37 appearances in all competitions last season after an ACL problem saw him spend most of 2022 on the sidelines. A two-footed winger renowned for this work rate as well as his technical ability, speed and dribbling, the 26-year-old has all the attributes to be a hit under Arne Slot. The pressure for Chiesa to succeed immediately is unusually low – he has five quality colleagues in attacking positions, so could be introduced into the side slowly if necessary. The transfer fee Liverpool have agreed is another potential masterstroke – a value seven or eight times the agreed €10 million would not have seemed outrageous not so long ago. As Paul puts it: shrewd.