Journalist says Dortmund want Chiesa

Normally, we’d just sit back and enjoy a story as crazy as the Ousmane Dembélé one right now. The player has vanished entirely from the public eye, although manager Peter Bosz seems to have finally tracked him down and had a word with him as the 20-year-old tries to force a move to Barcelona, who covet him as Neymar’s replacement. So far, it’s just another late-August transfer story that illustrates the pure, unfettered absurdity of professional football. But now someone’s gone and dragged Federico Chiesa into it, so we’re going to have to do something.

Sky Sport Germany claimed that Fede was on the list as an “Ersatz-Dembele” (which phrase I really like) in this article a couple of days ago. There’s precisely zero indication that Borussia Dortmund are at all considering a bid for the kid; the author of the piece just mentions Chiesa as the sort of player who’d be a decent replacement. To reiterate, the journalist merely mentioned that Chiesa is a good young player.

So, having addressed the rather sensationalist headline (“Dortmund want Chiesa as the Dembélé replacement”) from firenzeviola.it, let’s all just sit back and enjoy the wackiness of a player completely disappearing in an effort to force a move. This one is a complete non-starter. If you want get anxious about Fiorentina transfer business, though, take a look at the current Viola squad. There’s no shortage of things to stress about.