Liverpool sign Federico Chiesa in bargain £10m deal – three years on from £100m valuation

Liverpool have completed a £10 million deal for Juventus and Italy winger Federico Chiesa.

Chiesa flew to Merseyside for a medical on Wednesday and the deal could be worth up to £12.5 million to Juve provided add-ons are met.

The right winger has long been admired by Liverpool’s recruitment department who believe they have secured a bargain fee for a player determined to rediscover his best form after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Chiesa was linked with Chelsea and Barcelona when the transfer window opened and Liverpool’s move is considered something of a shock given they have a strong attack.

It was not thought that the Merseyside club were seeking reinforcements in that area as Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota have started the season in fine form and Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo are highly experienced understudies.

The club’s priority so far has been to strengthen their midfield and the pursuit of a No 6 has been well documented.

But the club want six strikers and signing Chiesa gives manager Arne Slot a formidable strikeforce to choose from. Slot wants a player with a similar profile to Salah available on the right wing. Salah’s current understudy is Harvey Elliott – a very different type of striker – while youngster Ben Doak has been earmarked for a loan move.

Chiesa was rated in the £100 million range three years ago, but he has suffered a torrid time with injuries since then and is trying to work his way back to full fitness.

He becomes Slot’s second significant signing. Liverpool agreed a £30 million deal for Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili on Monday. The Valencia No 1 will, however, stay at his the La Liga club on loan for the remainder of the season.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have rejected an approach from Bayer Leverkusen for midfielder Tyler Morton.

Analysis: Chiesa’s Liverpool move can keep Salah fresh

Liverpool 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 at his disposal after signing Federico Chiesa from Juventus 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 wonder whether sporting director Richard Hughes is planning for the Egyptian’s departure in 2025.

An alternative theory is that the signing of Chiesa – or a winger with a similar profile – is designed to extend rather than end Salah’s extraordinarily productive era, the burden on the 32-year-old seen as having been too much, particularly during the climax to Liverpool’s campaigns.

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, appears a seamless transition from the Klopp era.

Sunday’s opponents, Manchester United, have more reason than most to fear Salah’s form: he has scored 14 goals in 15 appearances against them – 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 his pedigree, and Liverpool’s scouting department is 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 now.

But Slot was obviously in the market for an option to manage Salah’s workload and keep him as sharp 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 the summer chatter about the club’s requirement for a couple of reinforcements to challenge Manchester City and Arsenal – pretty much all of it justified – the underlying reason for a poor finale was the tiredness of some senior players.

Salah was among them, in part because of his mid-season commitments at the Africa Cup of Nations – from which he returned with a hamstring injury.

He still scored and created goals back in the Premier League but not with the same frequency and zip in his game, as the combination of workload and ‘muscle fatigue’ took its toll.

Before his departure for Afcon on Jan 1, 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 drop off for Liverpool’s most dangerous and reliable attacker.

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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.

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Whether that was an anomaly in an especially demanding campaign, or a red flag that Liverpool must act upon to keep Salah at his best for eight months, the move for Chiesa – who is versatile enough to play anywhere in 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, but Klopp had long realised his superstar needed a rest and had no like-for-like replacements for the title run-in.

Klopp later admitted he regretted not using right-side midfielder Harvey Elliott more often. But for all his promise, Elliott is not 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 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. But equally, it will require all of Slot’s diplomatic skills to reassure Salah that an alternative in his position is as much for his own good as the team’s.

Salah has never wanted to be rested or substituted, and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s reaction to being replaced by Conor Bradley last Sunday emphasised star players appear to take such decisions personally and do not fear showing their displeasure in public. They all want to play every minute of every game.

Whether experience will encourage Salah to 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.