Fiorentina release ambiguous statement regarding Chiesa’s future

When you combine the turmoil surrounding every aspect of Fiorentina these days with Federico Chiesa’s natural ability, you’re going to get plenty of rumors about an impending exit. The club, however, moved to head off the chatter with a brief statement on the website yesterday which claimed that Fede is part of the team’s plans going forward and is not for sale, contrary to popular opinion.

“We’re reading continuous news spread by others about the future of Chiesa and where he will play next season. The current owner would like to point out that Federico is a Fiorentina player tied to the company by a long contract and so, as far as we’re concerned, Chiesa will play next year in Florence and will be the symbolic player for the squad that will be built.”

On first reading, this is very good news. As we mentioned, the first part is quite true: lots of people are speculating on Chiesa’s team for next year. Too, he is indeed under contract until the end of 2022, according to the contract he signed in 2017. Pointing these facts out and flat-out refuting them is bound to bring comfort to the fans.

And yet, and yet. The real key phrase in there is “the current owner.” It’s no secret that the Della Valle brothers (and Diego in particular) are on the verge of selling the club. While you’d hope that any new owner would be willing to shell out whatever salary is necessary to keep Fede around, it could well be that he simply isn’t going to stay in Florence next season for myriad reasons, chief among them a natural desire to go to a bigger team where he won’t have to carry the entire XI to a result every week. His reported desire for a significantly increased salary could also come into play.

This feels, therefore, like the DVs covering their butts a little bit. If they sell the team and Chiesa moves on, they’ll be able to throw up their hands and say it’s not their fault. Of course, anyone who’s been paying attention for the past few years knows that their failure to assemble anything resembling a decent team around the Italian international is the chief cause of the Viola struggles over that period. And those struggles will almost certainly be why Chiesa leaves, not because of anything a new owner does or doesn’t do.