How Liverpool pulled off Federico Chiesa transfer as truth about wages emerges (2024)

An inside look at Liverpool's sole transfer of the 2024 summer transfer window after Federico Chiesa's £12.5m move from Juventus

As one of the stars of an Italy squad who won the European Championship three years ago, it would have been disingenuous of Liverpool's recruitment staff to describe Federico Chiesa as an unknown quantity.

But the speed at how the Reds were able to execute a deal for the Juventus forward this week speaks to the Italian connections of sporting director Richard Hughes, who brokered a £12.5m transfer with seemingly minimum fuss. That, after lingering interest in Leny Yoro, a complicated and fraught negotiation for Anthony Gordon and a U-turn from Martin Zubimendi, was not to be sniffed at for Hughes in his first transfer window in one of the most demanding positions in European football.

And in truth, despite potentially earning the club north of £60m through sales of a handful of fringe players, Chiesa was a boost that Hughes needed as much as the Liverpool squad itself.

Only those inside the recruitment team will know why the move was delayed until the final week of the window but those whose glasses are half empty might suggest it was something of a panicked gamble, having failed to land other targets this summer. Supporters with contrasting outlooks might argue a cerebral and "opportunistic" approach - to coin a Hughes term - enabled them to snare a 26-year-old for as little as £10m.

What cannot be debated is that Liverpool are signing a player of real pedigree. During his time with Juventus, Chiesa was regularly touted with moves away from Turin for fees that ranged between £80m-£100m and while many of those speculative stories might have been without foundation, they did at least speak to the talent the forward has.

Contact was said to have only been made on Monday evening as Liverpool initially insisted interest in Chiesa was merely exploratory at the time. Talks accelerated over Tuesday and an agreement was reached with Juventus, who were desperate to earn a fee for a high earner who was inside the final 12 months of his deal with the Bianconeri, on Wednesday.

Chiesa flew to Merseyside that afternoon before touching down at John Lennon Airport and taking the 20-minute drive up to his new workplace at the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby, where he was given the full tour of the gilded £50m base that is designed, gently, to give new arrivals a glimpse at the scale of the club they have signed for.

With Arne Slot's options already so plentiful in the attacking department, there is little risk attached to Chiesa's arrival. Liverpool don't need him to immediately reach the heights of 2021 when his performances helped steer the Euros Italy's way, and the Reds boss admitted on Friday that time will be taken to coax the 26-year-old back to the sort of form that made him such a valued player.

“I’ve said many times, it’s not easy to bring a player in that can help us because we already have so much quality," says Slot. “And we don’t only have a lot of quality, we have a really good culture over here when it comes to hard work.

“So I think when the first player you bring in needs to have that as a minimum. And that is one of the things that is outstanding with him.

“If you look at how he played in Italy, he’s really competitive in everything he does. He works really hard and he combines this with scoring goals, being aggressive in the one-v-ones and one-v-one duels or actions, as you call it.

“So in our opinion, in my opinion, he’s a very good player to have in our squad. He’s going to be competitive to the other ones and he knows his role.”

The head coach's confidence of working with his performance team to coax Chiesa back into the sort of form he displayed for the Azzurri in 2021 leapt out when the head coach discussed his new arrival on Friday and the ACL injury the forward suffered in January 2022 was not viewed as prohibitive. There is also a belief that his wider injury history, largely driven by the optics of that nine-month absence, has been exaggerated given he featured 37 times in all competitions for Juventus last summer.

It's understood that Chiesa had been tracked since his days at Fiorentina where he established himself as a rising star of Italian football before a complicated move to Juventus saw him join on an initial two-year loan before they made it permanent at £42m. The player himself said he had no doubts when Hughes was eventually permitted to speak directly with him this week.

"When Richard Hughes called me and he said: 'Do you want to join Liverpool?' – and the coach (Slot) called me – I said yes immediately because I know the history of this club, I know what it represents to the fans," he revealed.

The versatility, age, quality and fee made the move for Chiesa something of a no-brainer the more Liverpool looked into it and Slot's suggestion that he "knows his role" hints that a deputy position will be the starting spot for a player who trained for the first time with his new team-mates on Friday. His work rate was also something that Liverpool were hugely impressed with the more they looked into his character and skill set.

A lack of football over the summer at Juve has seen him left out of the Italy squad for their upcoming fixtures, which means Chiesa will get the opportunity to work closely with Slot at the AXA Training Centre during the break while he and his wife, Lucia, settle into their new surroundings on Merseyside off the pitch.

Chiesa rejected claims he had been asked to reduce his salary by Juventus in something of a parting shot to the Italian giants on Wednesday, saying he had never been tabled a new offer once inside the last 12 months and the four-year agreement brings him in on similar terms as his previous contract, which stood at €5m net (around £81,000 a week).

“Now, while saying goodbye, I would like to clarify the issue of the renewal," Chiesa said. "I have never received any offer of renewal from Juventus and, consequently, there has never been a request from me or my entourage regarding an increase or a reduction in my salary. I was informed that I would not be part of the project even before the start of training with the team."

The former Fiorentina star also shunned offers from the Saudi Pro League and an advance from Barcelona to make the switch to Merseyside and the genuine delight at which he showed during his unveiling on official club channels did not go unnoticed by Liverpool staff.

Hughes and Slot believe the modest fee, one that will rise to £12.5m based on Champions League and Premier League glory, is a significant bargain given some of the other deals conducted for wingers during the window. But while the Reds might be able to point to figures for the likes of Georginio Rutter, Joao Felix, Pedro Neto and Yankuba Minteh - who all moved for fees between £30m and £52m this window - as an argument for why Chiesa is undervalued, they will only be able to make such boasts if he delivers at Anfield.