I really hope Chiesa stays at least another season. With his injuries (fingers crossed) behind him and a full preseason under his belt, it would be nice to see what he’s really capable of for us.
10 Likes
But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t get to play much once the title was sealed. Mo wanted to break records on a personal level, but it would have been an ideal opportunity to give Chiesa a run in the team. Instead he got an hour or so.
I wouldn’t blame him for being pissed off.
I’m getting the feeling that club will be making more pragmatic decisions now that Edwards, Hughes and Slot are those calling the shots in their respective positions. Ironically, buying Chiesa might have been one, selling him might be another.
That’s why I’ve been certain for the past two months or so that Chiesa would leave, though I can’t say if it will be loan or a permanent move. Either way, I hope he does well but he’s done nothing to allay fears I had about this move last summer.
He didnt really though. When you are playing 2 games a week most of your training is some form of active recovery or light game preparation for the next game, not the sort of stuff that allows a player on the outside to really challenge a regular for the shirt. That is why Chiesa spent so much time on an individualized plan because the sort of training the team was doing “day in and day out” wasnt geared to bringing a player up to match fitness.
It was made clear he was bought for the long term, not for what he’d bring in the immediate or short term. Kind of almost the Liverpool of way of old that our big improvements come not from the players we just signed but from the players we signed the year before who with a year under the belt of learning the liverpool way are now ready to play. That’s why I’d still be surprised if we junked the project at this point. Slot would have to to have had a really negative view of him to give up already. Or maybe we see an opportunity to do something else that requires we make room.
5 Likes
That is true. The number of stress injuries the kids have collective picked up has been really problematic.
2 Likes
After we went out against PSG it was one game a week so it will have been normal training and he still didn’t pick him. As for the 2 games a week training those not having played take part in more vigorous sessions.
1 Like
Yes, as a side away from the core of the regulars. That was precisely the point i was making.
2 Likes
Would we really pay a bloke £80-£100k a week with little to no expectations of him contributing in his first 12 months? He’ll be 28 in October so he’s not exactly a long term project either.
Personally I think we took a swing and for whatever reason it’s not really worked. Maybe Slot doesn’t fancy him, maybe he’s struggled with fitness, maybe a combination of a bunch of factors. But if wants to be in the Italy squad for the world cup he’s going to need to play more than he has this season. I just don’t see that happening.
3 Likes
If it wasn’t a World Cup next summer, I think he would stay another season and we would see what’s what. But the Italian manager just made it very clear that he will only pick players who are playing more regularly for their club.
I think that factor, more than anything else, will sharpen Chiesa’s focus in the direction of an exit.
It will be a shame, as I think he has quality, at least to be a rotation option for us, but I will more than understand if he moves on due to the World Cup.
Napoli have some money. We should get our money back for him. I can’t stand the penny pinching where they try to loan players, and say we might give you a few Lira in a year’s time. Nope! It will be a modest price, but we should recoup our dough.
2 Likes
I don’t think we can underestimate the attraction of hedging against not being able to find a deal with Mo and finding a player who was drastically undervalued who we would have the luxury of taking the first year to rebuild him physically. We signed him for 10m. We only need to sell him for 15m and we’ve made all our money back even at a salary of 100k a week.
At 28 “long term” has to be taken in context. Obviously we were not hoping for a decade of success with him. But more that his value was viewed as over the length of his contract with little need or expectation to get productivity out of it early. In sports that sort of “prepare to replace a star before he’s left approach” is common enough, at least in well run sides.
If he does get moved on this summer this most likely explanation is seemingly that the uncertainty over Mo has ended and so rather than having 2 players in the same position both with only a couple of years of value left we’d move Chiesa on and look to replace him with a more legitimately longer term option.
3 Likes
@RER you can laugh but you responded to a point that the sort of training Chiesa was mostly involved in was not the sort that really put him in a contest with the guy wearing the shirt by pointing out that he trained a lot with the kids and reserves while the starters were getting ice baths and massages. And that was supposed to argue against my point? And I’m the one who made a laughable point?
Italy haven’t been at the last 2 world cups and currently sit 9pts behind Norway in there group. I don’t think they’ll make this World Cup either.
1 Like
Because you conveniently failed to address the first point. After going out of the Champions league we played 9 league games all just once a week so regular training. Then 4 of those essentially became dead rubbers yet he appeared in 3 games came on for the last 8 minutes in 2 and did 63 in the other thats 81 minutes only 10% of the available playing time. This seems to suggest he wasn’t doing enough in training to even get even then.
1 Like
Look what I found:
Maybe I should have said he would plug the gap during Salah’s absence …
2 Likes
The article says that Elliott to Brighton rumour originates from the tabloid that shall not be named. That said, the links to Brighton have existed for long but I think it’s more some social media wishful thinking.
3 Likes
It would be a good move for him to be honest. It’s the kind of environment where he could thrive, especially with Millie in his ear every day in training 
2 Likes
FSG out. Nat is better than Maguire
1 Like
Free or fee?