Liverpool to sign Federico Chiesa in bargain £10.9m deal – three years on from £100m price-tag

Plus: Chiesa’s arrival can extend rather than end Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool career and keep him fresh for the business end of the season

Liverpool are closing in on a £10.9 million deal for Juventus winger Federico Chiesa having advanced talks for the Italian international.
Contact between Liverpool and Juve have been progressing over the last 24 hours and Chiesa is now on standby to fly to Merseyside for a medical, with agreement on the fee understood to be close.
The right winger has long been admired by Liverpool’s recruitment department, who believe they can secure a bargain for a player determined to rediscover his best form having recovered from a serious knee injury.
Chiesa was linked with Chelsea and Barcelona at the start of the transfer window, and Liverpool’s move is somewhat of a shock given they are well-resourced in attack.
It was not thought that the Merseyside club were seeking reinforcements in that area, with Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota starting the season in fine form, and Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo beginning the campaign as highly experienced understudies.
The club’s priority so far has been to add to their number in midfield, their pursuit of a No.6 well documented.
But the club want six attackers and signing Chiesa will give manager Arne Slot a formidable strikeforce to choose from. Slot wants a similar profile of player available on his right wing. Salah’s current understudy is Harvey Elliott – a much different type of attacker – while youngster Ben Doak has been earmarked for a loan move.
Chiesa was rated in the £100 million range three years ago, but since then he has suffered a torrid time with injuries, trying to work his way back to full fitness.
He would become Slot’s second significant signing, both this week. Liverpool agreed a £30million deal for Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili on Monday, the Valencia No.1 staying at his current La Liga club on loan for the rest of the season.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have rejected an approach from Bayer Leverkusen for midfielder Tyler Morton.
Liverpool may soon finally have the six they have been prioritising all summer.
Not the holding midfielder Arne Slot has on his wish-list, but the number of attackers to pick from as the club considers advancing negotiations for Juventus’ Federico Chiesa before Friday’s transfer deadline.
Of their anticipated targets, a Mohamed Salah understudy was not previously considered high on the agenda. Those aware of Salah being in the final year of his Anfield contract will muse if sporting director Richard Hughes is forward planning for the Egyptian forward’s departure in 2025.
An alternative theory is the pursuit of Chiesa – or a winger with a similar profile – is designed to extend rather than end Salah’s era of extraordinary productivity, the burden upon the 32-year-old having been too much, particularly during the climax to Liverpool seasons.
Salah has begun this campaign as he often does, with a smile on his face, as sharp as his new haircut, and looking fitter and hungrier than ever, his two goals and an assist in the opening Premier League games contributing to what, thus far, is a seamless transition under new management.
Sunday’s opponents Manchester United have more reason than most to fear the African’s form, Salah having registered 14 goals in 15 appearances against Liverpool’s biggest rivals – the most he has scored against any opponent.
The idea that Chiesa can instantly challenge Salah’s starting place is, at best, fanciful, regardless of the Italian’s pedigree as Liverpool’s scouting department considers gambling on the 26-year-old rediscovering the pre-knee injury form that once put his valuation at £100 million rather than the bargain £10.9 million if a deal is agreed.
But what Slot is obviously in the market for is an option to manage Salah’s workload to keep him as efficient in March, April and May as he always is in the first half of the season.
With his eye for detail, Slot will have found Liverpool’s drop-off at the end of the 2023-24 season informative and one of the main areas for improvement. Amid all the summer chatter about the club needing a couple of reinforcements to overtake Manchester City and Arsenal – pretty much all of it justified – the underlying reason for the finale ending so badly was the senior players were overworked and ended the campaign knackered.
Salah was among them, in part because of the mid-season commitments at the Africa Cup of Nations from which he returned with a hamstring injury.
When he returned, he still scored and created goals, but not with the same frequency and zip to his game as it looked like the combination of workload and much referenced ‘muscle fatigue’ took its toll.
Before his departure for Afcon on January 1, 2024, over the first 27 games in all competitions Salah averaged a goal or assist every 79 minutes. That dropped to 91 minutes upon his return. That’s still a good return, but a significant fall for Liverpool’s most dangerous and reliable attacker.
For those analysing the trends – and Liverpool’s data department will be – it will not have gone unnoticed that last season Salah made his fewest number of appearances and played less minutes than in any of his previous six at Anfield.
Whether that was an anomaly in an especially demanding campaign, or a red flag that Liverpool must act to keep Salah at his best for eight months, the move for Chiesa – who is versatile enough to play anywhere across the front three – must be regarded as a response.
The nadir for Salah last season was Liverpool’s defeat at Goodison Park when, visibly fatigued, he lost possession in the build-up to Everton’s second goal and was left on the bench a few days later against West Ham. His touchline spat with Jurgen Klopp when called upon for the final stages of the 2-2 draw summed up the souring mood. Salah possibly felt like a scapegoat for events in the Merseyside derby when the reality is Klopp had long realised his superstar needed a rest but did not have any like-for-like replacements in a title run-in.
Klopp later admitted his regret at not using right midfielder Harvey Elliott more often. But for all his promise, Elliott is not the same profile as a right-sided attacker, while the other youngster of rich potential in that position, Ben Doak, needs a loan move to adjust to senior football.
All of the above makes the potential arrival of another right winger intriguing on a number of levels. It makes sense to have a new addition allowing Slot to manage Salah’s minutes to avoid a repeat of the end of the 2023-24 season.
Equally, it will require all of the new manager’s diplomatic skills to reassure Salah that an alternative right winger is for his as much as the team’s greater good.
Salah has never wanted to be rested or substituted early, and as the reaction of Trent Alexander-Arnold to being replaced by Conor Bradley last Sunday re-emphasised, star players appear to take such decisions personally and without fear of displaying their displeasure in public. They all want to play every minute of every game.
Whether experience will make Salah think differently remains to be seen, especially when – like Alexander-Arnold – he is maximising the time available to decide whether to commit to Liverpool beyond this season and every smile and scowl will be forensically examined in light of what it means for his future.