After a tame summer, Liverpool are expected to go big in the transfer market this January, and one of the biggest players they are being linked most prominently is Napoli forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
The Georgia international has been linked with a move away ever since leading Napoli to a historic Serie A title in in 2022/23. Last season, much like the rest of this team, was an underwhelming one for him, but this season under new boss Antonio Conte as the Partenopei look to take back the Italian topflight crown (they’re currently top of the Serie A table), Kvaratskhelia’s form has not taken the upward trajectory with the same ferocity as the rest of his team.
The 23-year-old has five goals and three assists from 19 appearances across all competitions. While these are not terrible numbers by any stretch, these are far from the standards he was demonstration two seasons ago, and so Napoli now look inclined towards letting him go.
For most part, Kvaratskhelia has been mooted to move to Paris Saint-Germain, with the Ligue 1 champions looking like the only side capable of matching Napoli’s fee and the player’s wages and willing to as well.
Liverpool, however, have an ace up their sleeve in the form an Italy international looking to head home.
The Chiesa situation
Liverpool knew what they were getting into when they brought over Federico Chiesa from Juventus. The once promising Euro 2020 winner has been reduced to a bit-part player ever since suffering an ACL tear nearly three years ago, after which all we have seen are fleeting moments of promise.
Injury concerns have followed Chiesa to England, sadly, as the 27-year-old has been nursing muscular issues for most of his first six months at Anfield, having mustered just four appearances (123 minutes in total) and one assist.
Liverpool brought Chiesa to England knowing they might have to let him go for nothing—that was the catch of their bargain acquisition that brought the fee down to a little over £10 million.
It’s not that stylistically Chiesa is a bad fit for Arne Slot’s system, but you have to be available for playing as a rule of thumb in order to prove your worth, and unfortunately with Chiesa the signs are not looking good, and so it’s understandable why he may be inclined to return home as well.
Liverpool are also not necessarily in a desperate position to offload him, but given the proposition on their hands they can’t not consider their options.
The Kvaratskhelia angle
Kvaratskhelia is an immensely talented player with age well and truly on his side. A wide operator who can play centrally, the Georgian is mostly a maverick operator who likes to roam freely and wreak havoc at will.
Conte’s system offer lesser flexibility to players like Kvaratskhelia than Slot, under whom forward players not only look like they have the freedom to interchange positions up front, with Luis Diaz we also have an example of a wide flair player thriving down the middle.
Simply put, Napoli have overplayed their hand by asking unreasonably unrealistic amounts of money for Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen in recent windows. Sure, they are well within their rights to demand whatever they wish if they don’t want to sell and the players don’t want to move at some point either, but neither of those things is true in this case. Napoli were also relying on the money they’d get by selling these two players to rebuild their squad, and now they’d have to settle for much less, though we’re still talking about a three-figure sum coming their way when these two leave.
€80 million is the price tag being mooted for Kvaratskhelia in this window—very doable for Liverpool not just because they are sitting on money ready to spend after a quiet summer but also because they could get that number further down by sending back Chiesa as makeweight, in whom Napoli are interested as well.
Conclusion
Liverpool took a punt on Chiesa and it didn’t work. They now have an opportunity to replace him with a better player.
This is a move that would prove win-win for all parties: Liverpool get a better player, Chiesa gets to go home, Napoli get money for their “Kvaradona” as well as an exciting player which, if they can handle him with care, will reap rewards for them, and Kvaratskhelia gets his much-awaited big-money move.
In conclusion, Liverpool should make this move happen this month.
