Liverpool linked with €100m bid for Juventus star Federico Chiesa
Liverpool are rumoured to have made an offer worth €100m (£85.6m) for Italy winger and Euro 2020 winner Federico Chiesa, but have been knocked back by Juventus.
Chiesa enjoyed a strong debut season at Juve in 2020/21, scoring 14 times in all competitions and earned international acclaim for his role at Italy at Euro 2020. He scored two outstanding goals at the tournament in the last 16 against Austria and the semi-finals against Spain.
Chelsea have been credited with interest in the 23-year-old, who started his senior career with Fiorentina. However, a report from Italian newspaper La Repubblica claims that Liverpool have also made an approach for the attacker.
The story suggests that Liverpool made Juventus aware of a willingness to pay €100m (£85.6m) for Chiesa, which would be an unlikely record transfer for the Reds, surpassing the £75m they paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.
But Juve have seemingly refused to entertain the offer. It is said that returning coach Massimiliano Allegri considers Chiesa not for sale and president Andrea Agnelli supports that stance.
Liverpool have enjoyed exceptional success in recent seasons but the time has already come to start refreshing the squad. Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are all 29 and an effort was made to relieve the burden on those three when Diogo Jota, then 23, was signed last summer.
On-field success has seen Liverpool’s wage bill grow considerably over the last couple of years as players have been rewarded accordingly, but the club struggles to compete financially with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, despite a decent record of selling players for good money.
A lack of financial muscle has stopped Liverpool from pursuing Kylian Mbappe, but while €100m for Chiesa would be an enormous investment, the likelihood had it gone any further would have involved a heavily structured deal to minimise the up-front payment.
The Reds are no strangers to such staggered transfers, paying only minimal fees for Jota and Thiago Alcantara last summer, with the rest of the fees paid in annual instalments.
Following the arrival of Ibrahima Konate, Liverpool are still on the lookout for a new midfielder and attacker, but incoming transfer business is likely to be funded primarily by player sales, while realistic arrivals are likely to cost well below Chiesa's reported valuation.
The departures of Marko Grujic, Taiwo Awoniyi, Kamil Grabara and Harry Wilson (who is set for Fulham) has already raised around £30m at Anfield, while the likes of Neco Williams, Divock Origi, Loris Karius and Xherdan Shaqiri could all also be sold in due course.
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