“Meeting expectations in the strongest national championship on the planet is very difficult…”, — write: sport.ua
Today, during the break in the national team match, we invite you to discuss the top five summer rookies of the EPL clubs, who in the 2024/25 season so far do not live up to what they were signed for…
Federico Chiesa
Age: 27 years old
Citizenship: Italy
Club: Liverpool
Federico Chiesa was an important figure for Juventus last season, but the Turin team underwent a change of head coach in the summer. The new coach of “Old Signora” Thiago Motta made it clear to the management that he does not count on Chiesa, and for this reason, the de facto winger was forced to urgently look for a new club. This became Liverpool, which also managed to negotiate the transfer of Federico at a reduced price, securing the signing of the Italian for only 12 million euros.
Despite such a low, as for the current level of prices in the Premier League, the cost of the transition, significant hopes were placed on Chiesa in the state of the “reds”. And how could it be otherwise, if it is about a football player who once helped the Italian national team win Euro-2020?
However, problems with physical readiness do not allow the Italian to demonstrate what he was invited to Liverpool for. Chiesa played just 18 minutes in one Premier League game and some Reds fans are already convinced their club threw money down the drain when they agreed to sign Federico from Juventus.
However, if the latest reports from the British press are to be believed, Liverpool’s bosses think otherwise: they are still confident that Chiesa can soon return to a decent level of fitness, after which he can help the “reds” move forward in all competitions, achieving success and winning booty. Agree, it sounds somehow too optimistic…
Kiernan Dewsbury Hall
Age: 26 years old
Citizenship: England
Club: Chelsea
In the summer of this year, in Chelsea, as well as in Juventus, which we casually mentioned above, there were changes in the coaching bridge. Ex-Leicester coach Enzo Maresca, who won the Championship title with the Foxes in the 2023/24 season, became the new coach of the Blues.
One of the key figures for Leicester in the 2023/24 Championship was central midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who made 26 appearances (12 goals and 14 assists) in 44 league matches. It is not surprising that after his move to London, Enzo Maresca expressed his desire to drag someone from his ex-wards with him. It was possible to reach an agreement with Leicester regarding the transfer of Dewsbury Hall in the process of rather difficult negotiations and for a significant amount – almost 35 million euros.
But for now, Dewsbury Hall’s playing time at Chelsea is too limited. He spent a total of only 43 minutes in 3 matches in the EPL, being mainly involved by Maresca in the games of cup tournaments – the Conference League and the English League Cup. This situation absolutely does not suit the midfielder, and he intends to request a transfer to another club in January…
Rumor has it that Aston Villa is interested in signing Dewsbury Hall, which, unlike Chelsea, competes in the European arena in the most prestigious continental tournament – the Champions League. It is clear that if Birmingham do attempt to sign Kiernan, it will be on a loan with the option to buy, and the fee for the latter will be significantly less than what Chelsea gave to Leicester – rumored to be 20 million…
Niklas Füllkrug
Age: 31 years old
Citizenship: Germany
Club: West Ham
Getty Images. Niklas Füllkrug Niklas Füllkrug can be called a kind of Jamie Vardy of the German bottle, because he is a forward who revealed his scoring talents late and declared himself at the top level. Füllkrug came to prominence with two productive seasons at Werder (2021/22 and 2022/23), during which Niklas scored 35 goals in 61 matches in the national league. In the summer of 2023, the striker moved to Borussia Dortmund for 17 million euros, from where he moved to West Ham for 27 million in the summer of this year.
In London, a lot was expected from the forward, who scored 14 goals in 22 matches for the German national team, and this is quite logical, but… After playing only 63 minutes in the three opening rounds of the championship and not having a single productive action, Füllkrug ended up in the infirmary with inflammation of the Achilles tendon and it is not yet clear when he will be able to return to the field again.
Of course, it is still too early to put the cross on the 31-year-old German in the Premier League, but his debut at the Misty Albion turned out to be far from as magical and effective as expected…
Eddie Nketiah
Age: 25 years old
Citizenship: England
Club: Crystal Palace
Getty Images. Eddie Nketiah Eddie Nketiah managed to make his way from the youth team to the first team of Arsenal, but there the forward never managed to prove that he was worthy of a place in the team as a key performer. It is quite logical that in the summer of this year, Mikel Arteta agreed to release Nketiah, who received a market offer from Crystal Palace for 30 million euros.
However, Nketiah has been completely unimpressive at the Glassers so far, although it was expected that a move to a team with less competition would help Eddie revive his career and find new impetus to restart it. So far, Nketiah can’t even score his first goal for Crystal Palace in the EPL, although he has already played 492 minutes in 7 matches.
And it is not possible for Eddy to establish a proper interaction with the key center forward of the “Glassers” Jean-Philippe Mateta, because of which both are criticized by the media and fans, but Nketia still gets more, because he gave Crystal Palace much less than the Frenchman. who scored 34 goals and provided 7 assists in 120 official matches in three and a half years in this club.
Joshua Zirkze
Age: 23 years old
Citizenship: Netherlands
Club: Manchester United
Getty Images. Joshua Zirkzee In the summer of 2024, the transfer of the Dutch center forward Joshua Zirkze from the Italian Bologna cost Manchester United’s coffers 42.5 million euros. Last season in Serie A, the striker scored 11 goals in 34 matches, which significantly helped his team to demonstrate a historic result – to finish in fifth place and win a ticket to the Champions League.
The debut for Manchester United for Zirkze seemed simply fabulous. In the first round of the EPL-2024/25, the forward came on as a substitute in the 61st minute in the match against Fulhe ma, and after 27 minutes scored his first goal in the “red devils” shirt, bringing the team a minimal victory – 1:0. Such a start gave Man Utd fans hope that their club had finally got a forward who might not be worse in terms of performance than former Old Trafford idols like Ruud van Nistelrooy or Wayne Rooney, but…
Having received more playing time, Zirkze never converted the trust of the coaching staff into scored goals, and very soon became only a rotation player. And his goal against Fulham still remains Joshua’s only of the current Premier League season, with the Dutchman making 11 appearances for 430 minutes.
It is obvious that the arrival of the Portuguese Ruben Amorim on the coaching bridge of Manchester United can be a great opportunity for Zirkze to change the situation, however, it is hardly worth talking about it with confidence, because according to insiders, the new coach does not count on Joshua too much. There are even rumors that the Dutchman could leave Old Trafford in January and return to Italy, where there are a number of teams interested in signing the ex-Bologna scorer on loan.
Text: meta.ua