Why Liverpool are not looking to offload summer transfer signing in January

Liverpool will reportedly not allow summer signing Federico Chiesa to exit in January.

The Italian arrived this summer from Juventus but has barely featured, earning just one start which came in the EFL Cup third round win over West Ham United. Since then, he’s been side-lined with an injury which is frustrating both him and the fans who have been excited to see more from him.

Injury issues have plagued the Italian across the past few years and it has been some time since he was in his ‘prime’ around 2021. The deal was low-cost - around £12.5m - and was seen as a risk-free deal given they raised around £60m in sales during the same window. Still, his lack of game time has resulted in some ‘reports’ emerging claiming he could exit on loan in January to seek game time.

However, The Athletic’s Liverpool reporter James Pearce has since revealed the latest on the winger’s situation, claiming he is being given every chance to prove himself this season at the club. ‘Liverpool are basically giving him a mini pre-season in the hope that he can build up his fitness levels. It’s about handling the intensity of the training. It’s too soon to write off Chiesa and there’s no truth in the rumours that Liverpool are already thinking about off-loading him.’

He played 37 times for Juventus last season and, across a long campaign, he will certainly get his chance to shine in Liverpool’s six-man strong attack. He is the only forward yet to score but he has featured for less than 100 minutes. A couple of teams have been linked with a move, including Galatasaray - according to Fotomac, the reigning Turkish champions are interested in signing Chiesa on loan and they aren’t the only ones.

AC Milan, according to Milan Live, are also being linked with a move while Como are also interested with Italian outlet CalcioMercato suggesting that Cesc Fabregas’ side are hoping to seize an opportunity to bring him in on a temporary deal. Given Arne Slot’s side are in all competitions and hoping to go deep in Europe and the league, Chiesa will be needed at some point. Even if his role is small given their deep attack, he could still influence small moments across only a handful of games across the season and those moments could well end up being defining - there is plenty of football to be played.