Your Transfer Rumour is Bullshit: Federico Chiesa to Liverpool, Again

Proper football is right around the corner, people, so we’ll soon have something of genuine interest to talk about once more, but before the weekend rolls around, football media has decided to throw one last turd at the wall.

It’s Federico Chiesa time again, and judging by the number of outlets that have been running the story of an alleged €70m Liverpool bid for the son of former Italy striker Enrico Chiesa, you’d be forgiven for thinking some new information on the matter had been unearthed. Perhaps an agent or team-mate or club executive had been running their mouth? Backed up by club-connected journos, mayhap?

Nah. Most English-speaking outlets source the claim to Tuttonapoli or Tuttomercato — those bastions of reliable transfer news — while the Italian outlets refer the rumour back to Repubblica. To the stunning surprise of everyone involved, Repubblica last discussed Chiesa’s imminent €70m transfer to Liverpool as recently as... last summer.

It’s just a straight up recycle of a nine-month old story that had no legs at the time, and has grown no limbs since then. Federico Chiesa is a fun little player with a big name, but there is nothing in his game to suggest he’d be on the Reds’ radar, certainly not at anything approaching the prices being touted. Beyond taking many, many, many shots and failing to hit the target with most of them (fun fact: Chiesa’s three straight seasons with exactly a 5.5% conversion rate is the only time this writer has seen that sort of consistency) the 21-year old is not outstanding at anything in particular and should not be a target for any of the Premier League’s top six.

So. Bin that, then, and instead redirect your focus to the Reds’ Premier League and Champions League double tilt, which will resume in exactly 68 hours.