Italian forward Federico Chiesa hasn’t had the start to life in England he’d have wanted and his Premier League days could already be coming to an end.
Liverpool forked out a fee in the region of £10m to sign Chiesa last summer and enable his unsatisfactory departure from Juventus, where he’d fallen out of favour two years after making his move from Fiorentina permanent in 2022.
The 27-year-old appears destined to leave the Reds in equally disappointing circumstances, having made just six Premier League appearances – all but one of them off the bench – in a debut season decimated by injury.
Liverpool haven’t been hanging around since winning the Premier League title last month.
Bayer Leverkusen’s in-demand attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz and flying right-back Jeremie Frimpong have both been added to Arne Slot’s squad, with Bournemouth full-back Milos Kerkez expected to follow and Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi subject to a potential big money move.
There will be outgoings too and Chiesa is apparently of interest to AC Milan but champions Napoli are leading the race for the Italy international, who won the European Championship in England with the Azzurri in 2021.
Sky Sport Italia via Football Italia reports that the Partenopei have already made the first move.
“Napoli have opened preliminary talks with Federico Chiesa’s agent Fali Ramadani,”according to Gianluca Di Marzio.
“The defending Serie A champions will sign two attacking wingers this summer and are also in talks with Bologna for Dan Ndoye and Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho.”
Napoli face reported competition from Juventus and Aston Villa if Sancho is a serious target and 24-year-old Switzerland international Ndoye could be the more logical preference after an impressive season in Emilia-Romagna.
But there’s a big potential upside for manager Antonio Conte if Napoli were to take their interest in Chiesa to the next level.
Irrespective of his leaving Juventus under a cloud and subsequently missing the boat at Anfield due to long-term injury, Chiesa is a player of exceptional ability.
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He burst onto the scene with boyhood club Fiorentina as long ago as 2016, scoring 26 goals in 137 Serie A appearances primarily as a wide forward.
Ten goals in an initial two-year loan spell with Juventus persuaded the Turin giants to commit to a permanent deal as the Genoa-born forward’s stock continued to rise.
Napoli could be just the place to unlock that early-career form once more.
The west coast club is riding the crest of a wave after a fourth Scudetto win and Kevin De Bruyne has already made the move to the champions as they demonstrated their muscle in the transfer market.
Chiesa only needs to look at former Man United midfielder Scott McTominay to understand Conte’s capabilities when it comes to unleashing talented but unfancied players.
McTominay was named as Serie A’s MVP after a season of excellent performances and crucial goals on the way to the first league title of his career.
If Chiesa heads to Naples to link up with McTominay, De Bruyne and former Premier League hitman Romelu Lukaku, he could well become Conte’s next regenerative big success.