The summer saga surrounding Federico Chiesa ended with a rather surprising move to Liverpool, but a return to Serie A could already be on the cards.
As Calciomercato.com report, Chiesa arrived at Liverpool with contagious enthusiasm and a great desire to compete in what is described as the pinnacle of European football: the Premier League. However, he has played just 78 minutes so far with the Reds, and 58 of these came in the Carabao Cup.
Chiesa is far behind his team-mates in terms of condition, according to the head coach Arne Slot, who did not mince words to describe what is going on with the former Juventus man.
“It’s difficult to say, he’s sometimes up and down a bit. He trains a few days then goes out again. I don’t want to put days or weeks on it,” he said.
“We just want him to be in the best possible shape. No pressure on him. A January loan? It hasn’t gone through my mind at all,” said Slot when asked about the prospect of a loan move.
“First is to get him fit. He missed pre-season and in pre-season he was in low intensity sessions as he was only training with three or four players. To go to a high intensity league is difficult for every player.
“It hasn’t been perfect yet so we are trying to find the right way to build him up and I’m fully confident that will happen.”
However, the very real risk is that Chiesa might continue to find minutes hard to come by with Mo Salah, Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gapko in the squad. Nonetheless, the Italian remains convinced that he can impose himself at Liverpool.
What is most likely is that he will seek a meeting with Slot to clarify his role in the team. A January exit remains a complicated idea because he earns €7.5m net per season until 2028, figures that are likely only payable by English teams.
A loan with part of the salary covered by Liverpool remains an idea though. Como are thinking about it, while he ‘could become an option for Milan’, as previous reports have suggested. First, however, it will be necessary to have a precise line from the English club.