Conflicting reports emerge over Federico Chiesa as Juventus maintain ‘constant contact’ | OneFootball

The future of Federico Chiesa has remained the subject of considerable speculation throughout the January transfer window.

With the 28-year-old still struggling to break into Arne Slot’s starting XI nearly 18 months on from joining Liverpool, he’s been strongly linked with a return to his native Italy, and to one of his former clubs in particular.

Earlier this month, Fabrizio Romano claimed that Juventus made ‘formal contact’ to register their interest in taking the attacker back to Turin, although James Pearce countered (via X) that the Merseyside club had no such communication from the Serie A outfit.

Conflicting reports emerge over Chiesa

On Wednesday night, Tuttomercatoweb reported that the Bianconeri are ‘determined’ to re-sign Chiesa and have maintained ‘constant contact’ with Liverpool, who are ‘clearly open to the possibility of selling the player’. It’s also alleged that the Reds’ number 14 is ‘keen to return’ to the Allianz Stadium.

However, that contradicts with The Athletic‘s Transfer DealSheet on Tuesday, which indicated that Anfield chiefs are ‘highly unlikely’ to sanction an exit for the 28-year-old this month and have ‘no appetite to offload him’ unless a ‘significant permanent offer’ were to be made.

(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

It’d make more sense for Liverpool to keep Chiesa this month

With conflicting reports emerging about Chiesa’s future in recent days, it can be difficult to know exactly where things stand regarding the Italian forward.

Our inclination would be to trust in the reporting from The Athletic’s James Pearce, who’s renowned as one of the most reliable sources on all things Liverpool.

The attacker mightn’t be a regular starter under Slot but he has at least been utilised more frequently this term than last, already making 50% more appearances in the current campaign than in the whole of 2024/25 (Transfermarkt).

Between Alexander Isak’s long-term injury and the uncertainty over how Mo Salah will reintegrate once he returns from the Africa Cup of Nations, the Reds aren’t in a position to let Chiesa depart unless he were to bang down the head coach’s door in demanding an exit.

That seems unlikely given his commendable attitude behind the scenes despite his limited game-time, but the onus is on the 28-year-old to make the most of any starts he’s given, something he didn’t do against Barnsley on Monday night as the game unfortunately passed him by for the most part.

Hopefully he’ll stay put at Anfield for at least the remainder of this season and prove to Slot why he’s worth keeping at the club.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Barnsley press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: