Chiesa’s Liverpool Future: Pre-Season Under Iraola

Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool story has reached that uncomfortable middle ground where hope and hard reality stop walking in step.

The numbers from 2025/26 strip away any romance. Thirty-three appearances in all competitions, but only two starts. Just 686 minutes of football across the entire campaign. In the Premier League, his role shrank even further: 23 appearances, one start, 278 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist.

For a player of his calibre, that is the profile of a fringe option, not a frontline signing. For a forward trying to rebuild rhythm, confidence and trust after a bruising first year at Anfield, it is nowhere near enough.

One Objective: Stay, Fight, Convince

Despite the speculation swirling around his name, Chiesa is not packing his bags. Not yet.

According to Fabrizio Romano, the Italian’s immediate plan is clear: report for pre-season, work under new head coach Andoni Iraola, and see if there is still a future for him on Merseyside.

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 continues to surface as a possible protagonist of this transfer window. Yet the player’s stance, for now, cuts through the noise.

“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 last line is the essence of it. Chiesa is not asking for guarantees. He is asking for a chance. A fair look from a new manager, a clean slate, an opportunity to prove he still belongs in this squad.

Iraola’s First Big Call

For Iraola, this is an early, revealing examination of his own convictions.

On paper, Chiesa brings experience, intelligence and technical quality. He knows high-pressure environments. He knows big games. Yet his Liverpool record to date raises obvious questions: Is the sharpness still there? Can his body cope with the demands? Does he truly fit what Iraola wants from his wide forwards?

Iraola’s football is unforgiving. It demands running, aggression, precision in transition, and clarity in decision-making at speed. At his peak, Chiesa ticked many of those boxes. He pressed with intent, attacked space, and carried the ball with purpose.

The dilemma for Liverpool is whether that version of Chiesa can reappear often enough in pre-season to justify keeping him beyond the summer window.

Romano’s update underlines that this is not a saga to be resolved in late June. The club and player are willing to let pre-season speak.

“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.”

The message is simple: he stays, he trains, he competes. Then the judgement comes.

Serie A Waiting Quietly

Back in Italy, the interest has not disappeared; it has just moved into the background.

Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Roma all make sense on paper. Serie A knows Chiesa intimately – the explosiveness, the direct running, but also the injuries and the frustration of recent years. Any of those clubs could view him as a reclamation project, a familiar asset in need of a fresh stage.

For Liverpool, the calculation will be far less sentimental. If Iraola sees a forward who can add depth, unpredictability and big-game experience to his attacking options, Chiesa’s Anfield chapter can still stretch beyond this summer. If not, the final weeks of the window are likely to bring a more clinical conclusion to a move that never truly settled into rhythm.

For now, Chiesa has chosen the difficult path. No shortcuts, no early escape. He will report, run, listen, and try to change minds on the training pitches and in the friendlies that follow.

At Liverpool, this pre-season is not just another warm-up for him. It is his last real card to play.