One Liverpool player whose game-time has been all too sporadic this season has now been identified as a primary transfer target for one of the most high-profile managers in world football.
Federico Chiesa’s first few months at Anfield haven’t gone how anyone would’ve liked, with the Italy international needing time to build up his fitness due to the lack of a proper pre-season and then being unable to forge his way into the Reds’ starting line-up.
In fact, since the beginning of January, the newly-crowned champions have played more Premier League matches (16) than the forward has had top-flight minutes (15), a damning indictment of where he sits in the pecking order.
Jose Mourinho keen to bring Chiesa to Fenerbahce
Reports from Turkey have claimed that Liverpool’s number 14 is now being targeted by a man whose name will be very familiar to everyone on these shores.
According to A Spor, Jose Mourinho has implored the Fenerbahce hierarchy to try and land Chiesa amid his struggles for game-time at Anfield.
The former Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs boss is keen to improve his wide attacking options at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium and has duly identified the 27-year-old as a primary target for the summer transfer window.
Mourinho is not the manager that Chiesa needs right now
Slot may have been able to explain his initial reluctance to utilise Chiesa by citing fitness issues at the outset of his Liverpool career, but it seems a mystery as to why the Italian has barely played in recent weeks, especially after his goalscoring cameo in the Carabao Cup final in mid-March.
The Reds boss has given his backing to the forward with his comments in public, but the former Juventus star ought not to expect the same patience from Mourinho, who isn’t slow to throw his own players under the bus if he’s unhappy with their attitude or performance levels – just ask Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial or Dele Alli about it.
After our number 14 scored his first LFC goal in the FA Cup win over Accrington Stanley in January, ITV commentator Seb Hutchinson labelled him a ‘top-level talent‘, and we imagine that any Kopite watching the game would’ve agreed.
Unfortunately that didn’t prove to be the moment when Chiesa’s Liverpool career took flight, but if he is to leave Anfield in the summer – and we fervently hope that he doesn’t – we wouldn’t recommend him going to Fenerbahce because of the man in the dugout.
If the 27-year-old’s confidence is at a low ebb, expecting to get it back under the notoriously abrasive Mourinho is every bit as inadvisable as searching for the seaside in a landlocked nation.
Hopefully the Italian will be handed the one additional Premier League appearance that he needs in order to qualify for a medal at the presentation on the final day of the season, and that he can kick on next term after a difficult first few months on Merseyside.
