Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool Journey Under Iraola

Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool story has reached that uncomfortable stage where the idea of what he could be and the reality of what he is are drifting apart.

For a player of his calibre, the numbers from 2025/26 are stark. Thirty-three appearances in all competitions, but only two starts. Just 686 minutes across the season. In the Premier League, his involvement shrank even further: 23 appearances, one start, 278 minutes, 2 goals and 1 assist.

That is squad-filler output from a marquee signing. It is also a thin platform for a forward trying to rebuild rhythm, confidence and trust after a bruising first year at Anfield.

One Clear Objective

Despite the whispers, Chiesa is not packing his bags just yet.

According to Fabrizio Romano, the Italian’s immediate plan is simple: report for pre-season and work under new Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola. No rush to escape, no early push for a move.

Romano, speaking on his Italian YouTube channel, laid out the landscape: Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Roma have all been mentioned as potential destinations, and Chiesa’s name keeps surfacing as a possible protagonist of this transfer window. Yet the player’s stance is firm for now.

“At the present time the decision made by the Liverpool player is to participate in the preseason – to get together with the new coach Andoni Iraola. Chiesa just wants to play his cards in preseason at Liverpool,” Romano explained.

That line cuts through the noise. Chiesa wants a chance. Not assurances, not a guaranteed role, just the opportunity to convince Iraola that he still belongs in this Liverpool squad.

Iraola’s First Big Call

For Iraola, it is an early and revealing examination.

On paper, Chiesa brings experience, game intelligence and real technical quality. On tape, his Liverpool spell so far raises doubts about sharpness, physical resilience and whether he truly fits the system.

Iraola’s football is unforgiving. It demands running, aggression, precision in pressing and clarity in transition. At his peak, Chiesa ticks many of those boxes: direct, explosive, dangerous on the break. The question is whether that version of him appears often enough in pre-season to justify keeping him beyond the summer window.

Romano’s update makes one thing clear: this is not a decision to be rushed through in late June. The verdict will come after Iraola has seen him up close.

“If during this preseason it becomes clear that the space between Chiesa and Liverpool is limited in that case he could become a name for the Italian market in the last weeks of the transfer market,” Romano said. “It is not an operation for late June – not for these days.”

So the clock is not ticking loudly yet. But it is ticking.

Serie A Waiting in the Wings

Back in Italy, the interest has not disappeared. It has simply moved into the background.

Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Roma all make logical sense on paper. Chiesa remains a known quantity in Serie A – a player whose strengths, and recent frustrations, are well understood. For clubs there, he would not be a mystery signing, but a reclamation project.

For Liverpool, sentiment will not drive the decision. Iraola must decide whether Chiesa can add depth, unpredictability and seasoned experience to a forward line already crowded with options. If the answer is yes, the Italian’s Anfield chapter might yet be extended, reshaped and redeemed.

If not, the final weeks of the window are likely to deliver a cleaner, colder outcome: a return to Italy and the quiet admission that this move never really found its rhythm.

For now, Chiesa has chosen the harder road. He will stay. He will train. He will compete. He will try to change minds in a dressing room and a club that have already moved on once without him.

In a Liverpool pre-season defined by Iraola’s new ideas, few players have more riding on a handful of summer sessions than Federico Chiesa.