Liverpool-linked attacker Federico Chiesa was a far from likely option to sign for the Merseysiders in the summer, according to Neil Jones.
The reporter pointed to the Italian international’s current arrangement with Juventus with the attacker’s value likely to grow astronomically should the Serie A giants make his loan move permanent.
“Liverpool were never going to buy him in the summer, he’s on loan, he’s still on loan at Juventus. He’s [pretty much] a Juventus player because there’s a deal set up, there was no real scope for anyone to buy him in the summer,” the Goal journalist told the Journo Insight Extra show on Redmen TV.
“He obviously performed brilliantly at the Euros, I thought he was one of the stars of the tournament but as I think I said [on a previous edition of the show], you can look at certain players and say ‘Yeah, he’s a Liverpool player, if you sign him, I can see how he plugs in straight away’.
“When I spoke to a few sources around Liverpool in the summer, the reply was pretty much ‘that ship has sailed. If we were going to get him, and we do like him – and I’m not breaking any great news there saying Liverpool like Federico Chiesa – the chance to get him was at Fiorentina when he was £20m, now he’s at Juventus, he’s probably £60m-£70m and still going up’.
“I’m pretty sure there was no inkling of it in the summer… but if there was an opportunity to get him at a decent price in the future, I think Liverpool would certainly want to be looking at it, whether that opportunity emerges is another thing.
“In Chiesa’s case, especially, the one thing you would say is that he fits the bill as a Liverpool player in everything but availability and that’s a pretty significant bit!
The 23-year-old attracted global attention following his exploits during the European Championship, registering key goals for the Azzurri.
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With the player’s loan deal set to expire next summer, we can be almost certain that Juventus will be prepared to keep the forward in Turin on a permanent basis.
Given the Italian outfit’s well-known financial concerns, however, in light of the impact of the global pandemic, there’s a slim possibility that the club could be inclined to part ways with Chiesa if a sizeable bid were to be offered.
Whether Liverpool will have the finances necessary to fund such a move in the next summer window, however, is a different matter entirely.
That being said, there are some signs that a level of normality is returning to L4, which could bode well for our future transfer endeavours.