Liverpool is in for an exciting transfer window, which it will now enter as the Premier League champion. Vowing to strenghten from a position of strength, the club faces a big summer of buying — but some of the biggest decisions concern players already at the club.
In certain cases, the choices look fairly straightforward. Darwin Nunez is surely for sale at the right price, while the time is ripe for Caoimhin Kelleher to go and be the number one somewhere else, especially given the arrival of Giorgi Mamardashvili.
There are other, more marginal calls too. Joe Gomez has been somewhat peripheral, but started six games in a row before injury put an end to his involvement; Harvey Elliott has been on the fringes, but letting him go would be a major risk given his talent.
But in all of these cases, Slot is deciding what to do with one of Jurgen Klopp’s players (Gomez, in fact, predates even Klopp). The toughest call might well be deciding what to do with the one player he has already brought to Anfield himself.
There are all sorts of excuses available to Federico Chiesa. A lack of adequate pre-season left him playing fitness catch-up from the start, and Mohamed Salah has not exactly given any would-be understudies much chance to make a case for themselves.
But the fact remains that he has still only made four Premier League appearances, one game shy of automatically qualifying for a winner’s medal. The only signing of last summer has played no meaningful part in Slot’s debut season success.
One option would be to write him off as a low-cost gamble that did not pay dividends. Chiesa would still have some resale value this summer, perhaps back to Serie A, and Liverpool could send him packing in the knowledge that it had been well worth a punt on trying to restore the Italian’s pre-injury levels.
He may even be able to swap one title winner for another. Napoli is closing in on the Scudetto, and has been linked with a move for Chiesa.
However, Slot and Liverpool would be justified in giving it one more season. It is not blind hope to wonder if Chiesa could still make it at Anfield.
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Sure, there’s every reason to root for him against the odds, given that he has celebrated every goal this season with the passion of a lifelong fan. But the winger is not just some plucky nobody who you instinctively want to do well — there was a time when he was among the most coveted wingers in Europe.
And there have been glimpses, albeit tiny ones, of what Chiesa can bring. Even on the other side of his cruciate ligament hell, the Italian is still reasonably agile — but where he stands out most is his ball-striking.
That’s an odd thing to say about a player with two goals in all competitions all season, but he has only been on the pitch for the equivalent of a little more than four full games. On the rare occasions where Slot has turned to him, Chiesa has often been the one to sting the palms of the goalkeeper, injecting a little impetus into games that were lacking it.
It came too late, but he even managed to do just that at Wembley, finding a goal to threaten the most unexpected of fightbacks. That showcased the kind of impact on the squad the Liverpool decision-makers must have hoped he might have when sanctioning the deal in the first place.
This summer’s business might yet hand Chiesa more chances, too. Salah is going nowhere following his contract renewal, which is an undeniable blow to his hopes of getting significantly more minutes, but there is uncertainty around much of the rest of the forward line.
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Nunez is likely to be off, and Luis Diaz has been linked with a transfer away as well. Diogo Jota could be for sale too.
If they all left and Chiesa stayed, there would surely be a handful of extra opportunities. Liverpool would not sanction those sales without one or two replacements, in fairness, but places in the front line would suddenly be a little more up for grabs.
And Chiesa would be able to compete for his spot on a completely level playing field this time. He will have had a full pre-season, he has had time to get up to the speed of the league, and his injuries are long behind him.
That also means that there are no excuses: if it doesn’t work for Chiesa next season, then his Liverpool career is over. But while it’s a tough decision, one more chance makes sense — Slot’s first ever Anfield transfer is not quite doomed to be a bust just yet.
