Arne Slot Richard Hughes Liverpool 2024-25
© IMAGO - Arne Slot Richard Hughes Liverpool 2024-25
Was this Richard Hughes' plan all along? Liverpool are set to make millions off one misfit player.
Richard Hughes had a strange start in the transfer market as Liverpool's sporting director. Joining last summer, there was really only one player that the Reds pushed for.
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They tried to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad and they did get close! Only, Liverpool eventually failed to tempt him away from his boyhood club.
Zubimendi remained and there was no great backup plan. Liverpool stuck with what they had in midfield, although that did turn out to be an inspired decision.
Still, Liverpool went into this campaign without a major signing for the first team. That's a fairly strange thing to do, given they had a new person in charge of the squad in Arne Slot.
The Reds essentially asked Slot to find success with Jurgen Klopp's squad. The new playing style would be the 'addition'.
Giorgi Mamardshvili signed from Valencia but the goalkeeper won't join until after this season. Even then, we're yet to see what the plan is.
Right at the death, though, Liverpool did find a signing. Slot wanted a sixth forward for his squad and Hughes delivered one - Federico Chiesa. The Italian signed from Juventus on the cheap and it felt like an inspired 'Moneyball' transfer.
However, not in the way anyone thought.
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The Federico Chiesa plan
Did Liverpool actually view Chiesa as a proper addition to the squad? On the face of it, no. They didn't.
Chiesa didn't have a pre-season with Juventus, meaning he arrived at Liverpool unfit. There was a semi-bright start across a couple of games but the Reds quickly stopped using him.
The line was that Chiesa needed a mini pre-season in order to get up to speed. From January, he'd be ready and then we'd all see him.
Well, it's now March and Chiesa is yet to tally 30 Premier League minutes. His three top-flight appearances total 28 minutes, such is the lack of use Liverpool seemingly see for him.
Even against Southampton - a fixture against the bottom side sandwiched between two crunch Champions League ties - wasn't enough for Slot to give him a go. That certainly suggested Chiesa wasn't lasting long in this squad.
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And now Florian Plettenberg claims Chiesa is one of those on the chopping block. He's a potential departure in the summer, with Liverpool ready to move on.
Which makes you wonder - was selling the plan all along? Liverpool haven't really given Chiesa a chance but at the same time, everyone understood paying £10m to sign him.
He was undervalued at that price. Chiesa is unquestionably worth more than that and it may be that Liverpool simply saw that as a sensible investment.
Not for the playing squad in the 'traditional' Moneyball sense but as a quick 'flip' to make money for this summer. 2025 is set to be a major one, after all, with all sorts of comings and goings.
Making a profit on Chiesa, as well as boosting the numbers for this season, may just have been smart business. Liverpool saw it as no risk, essentially - he would always be worth more than £10m in 2025 simply because of his reputation.
It's cynical but it's worked.
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