He has always been one of the less popular TIA contributors. I mentioned him largely in honour of @Kopstar who had a particular dislike for his pieces as they were often full of inaccuracies (dates of international transfer windows, the legal situation in the Sakho are two things that spring to mind).
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I donāt think anyone thinks everything is perfect. But the title is within touching distance and two of our most important players have just signed new deals.
Just feels like thereās a time for critiquing performances, transfers and contracts but most people just want to enjoy this week. Thereāll be plenty of time for all that other stuff come the summer.
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The prophecy finally came true.
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I find it rather hard to take the suggestion that Arne isnāt impressed by what he sees. Certainly not enough to displace Salah, but we do have quite a few good players whom he doesnāt play that much either, like Quansah.
Nonetheless, unless we plan to keep Doak for this coming season, it makes no sense for us to sell Chiesa, not when weāve still got AFCON to reckon with.
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Its a weird notion that Slot canāt properly assess him on training (few posts back) or that he is about to be jettisoned in the Summer.
He hasnāt had much of a chance this season, due to fitness/Salahās form etc.
But I believe he will be here next season.
And will be important.
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Well, it would make sense if Arne doesnāt think he can rely on Chiesa to provide regular quality he expects or if he believes he can cover Salahās absences through alternative existing options within the squad (I seem to remember there was some talk last summer of Dom potentially playing off the right for example?) or via new ones brought in this summer.
Iād believe that idea more if Salah had come off more often with other players replacing him.
At this point itās almost like saying we donāt rate Gomez or Quansah enough because we donāt take van Dijk off more for them more often.
I think we will see with Chiesa. The longer he stays in the summer the more Slot probably is keen on him. From what weāve seen in match action we are a bit baffled because heās looked decent.
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At the same time itās also a bit tiresome to see things that can only be described as very minor bumps in the road blown out of proportion.
Along the course of a league season a club will take lots or decisions and wonāt get all of them right. Itās the totality you have to look at.
On one hand I feel for Chiesa and I wish him well. On the other I care more about winning the league and LFC doesnāt have an obligation to rebuild Chiesaās career for him.
I suspect he was a bit of an opportunistic punt and he might have got a bit more time had the season petered out into a bog standard top four but no more kind of thing. When it became apparent that the league was there to be won, then there became less opportunity to give developmental minutes to the like of Chiesa.
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Agree with this. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that he isnāt cutting it at LFC. Still think he has been a bit hard done by, as he showed a lot of quality during his short spells on the pitch. But as you say, there are objective reasons for that.
Hopefully the title will be wrapped up very soon, and then weāll possibly see more of him, fingers crossed!
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Why? the options we may have available next season may be better or more numerous, Arne may want to do things differently like he did at his previous clubā¦and we are comparing a season where Salah has been ever present against one we believe he will be away for a few weeks at an international tournament.
Well, not really, I was only responding to your comment about a sale for Chiesa not making any sense just because it is AFCON next winter. Theyāre different situations and discussions.
Perhaps. I find it hard to believe the club would sign someone for a 4 year contract only to quickly discard him, especially when he hasnāt looked particularly out of place when heās played.
In any case, you specifically said āthrough alternative existing optionsā, in which case we probably would have already seen that happen. Yet we havenāt.
We signed Ben Davies on a long-term contract, even though he was only intended as a break glass backup. Chiesa is clearly in a different bracket, but they the length of contract would only be an issue if we couldnāt move him on.
We signed him in the last year of his contract, near the end of the transfer window, for Ā£10m, and proceeded to give him 395 minutes so far this season.
Iām not sure moving him on would be that easy.
From the playerās perspective though, he could be languishing in no manās land for a Juventus that is having a terrible season (I just realised that they fired Motta last month), but instead heās making the bench somewhat regularly for the prospective Premier League winners, having scored a consolation goal in a cup final.
I think this situation is actually probably okay for both the club and the player. The question is what happens next season.
EDIT: Also, the fee for Davies was supposedly Ā£500k. We also kept him for 1.5 seasons, having loaned him out to Sheffield United first.
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Yes, the Davies thing was a completely different situation. Itās just the contract length that rang a bell.
We even turned a profit on that oneā¦
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I said "through alternative existing options within the squad [ā¦] or via new ones brought in this summer
With regards to the former, I donāt think we know enough to draw a solid conclusion when we know Arne likes to use the same players and Mo has been banging in the goals and assists.
Weāre just boring at this point, right?
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My bad, I didnāt process the bit after the parentheses as part of the same thought.
Still, I donāt see how you can say this but not apply the same standards to Chiesa. Fact is, heās been mostly at least decent when heās played.
I called that a long time ago!