Today, during the break for the matches of the national teams, we invite you to discuss the top five summer rookies of the EPL clubs, who in the 2024/25 season do not even come close 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 winger was de facto forced to urgently look for a new club. Such was Liverpool, which also managed to negotiate the transfer of Federico at a reduced price, ensuring the signing of the Italian for only 12 million euros.
Despite such a low, as for the current level of prices in the EPL, the cost of the transfer, significant hopes were placed on Chiesa in the state of the “Reds”. And how could it be otherwise, if we are talking about a football player who at one time helped the Italian national team win Euro-2020?
However, problems with physical fitness do not allow the Italian to demonstrate what he was invited to Liverpool for. Chiesa played only 18 minutes in one match of the English Premier League, and some fans of the “Reds” are already convinced that their club threw money into the wind when they agreed to buy Federico from Juventus.
What is true, if you believe the latest information from the British press, Liverpool’s bosses think otherwise: they are still confident that Chiesa will soon be able to return to a decent level of physical fitness, after which he will be able to help the “Reds” move further in all tournaments, achieving success and winning trophies 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 mentioned briefly above, there were changes in the coaching staff. 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 recorded 26 productive actions (12 goals and 14 assists) in 44 league matches. It is not surprising that after his move to London, Enzo Maresca expressed a desire to drag someone from his former wards with him. It was possible to reach an agreement with Leicester on the transfer of Dewsbury Hall in the process of exhausting negotiations and for a very impressive sum – almost 35 million euros.
But for now, Dewsbury Hall’s playing time in Chelsea is too limited. He spent a total of only 43 minutes in 3 matches in the EPL, being mainly involved by Mareska in the games of cup tournaments – the Conference League and the English League Cup. This situation categorically does not suit the midfielder, and he intends to demand a transfer to another club in the coming January…
They say that Aston Villa is interested in signing Dewsbury Hall, which, unlike Chelsea, plays on the European arena in the most prestigious continental tournament – the Champions League. It is obvious that if the Birmingham City make a request to sign Kiernan, then it will be a lease with the option to buy, and the amount of the latter will be much less than the one that Chelsea gave to Leicester – they are talking about 20 million…
Niklas Füllkrug
Age: 31 hours
Citizenship: Germany
Club: West Ham
Getty Images. Niklas Füllkrug Niklas Füllkrug can be called the Jaime Varda of the German draft, because he is a forward who revealed his scoring talents late and declared himself at the top level. Glory to Füllkrug was brought by 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… He played only 63 minutes in the three starting rounds of the championship and did not distinguish himself in a single productive action, Füllkrug ended up in the infirmary with inflammation of the Achilles tendons and it is still unclear when he will be able to return to the field again.
Of course, it is still too early to put an end to the 31-year-old German in the Premier League, but his debut at Tumanny Albion was not as magical and productive as expected…
Eddie Nketia
Age: 25 years old
Citizenship: England
Club: Crystal Palace
Getty Images. Eddie Nketia Eddie Nketia managed to make his way from the youth team to Arsenal’s first team, but there the forward did not manage to prove that he was worthy of a place in the team as a key player. It is quite logical that in the summer of this year, Mikel Arteta agreed to release Nketiah, for whom a market offer was received from Crystal Palace – for 30 million euros.
However, in the state of the “Glassmakers” Nketia is not yet completely impressive, although it was expected that the transfer to a team with a lower level of competition will help Eddy revive his career and find a new impetus for its reboot. So far, Nketia cannot even score his first goal for Crystal Palace in the Premier League, although he has already spent 492 minutes in 7 matches.
Even if Edda does not manage to establish a proper interaction with the key center forward of the “Glazers”, Jean-Philippe Matet, which is why both are criticized by the media and fans, but Nketia still gets more, because he gave Crystal Palace much less than a Frenchman who scored 34 goals and provided 7 assists in 120 official matches in three and a half years at this club.
Joshua Zirkze
Age: 23 years old
Citizenship: The Netherlands
Club: Manchester United
Getty Images. Joshua Zirkzee The transfer of Dutch center forward Joshua Zirkze from Italian Bologna cost Manchester United 42.5 million euros in the summer of 2024. In the last Serie A season, 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.
Zirkze’s debut for Manchester United turned out to be 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 Fulham, and after 27 minutes he distinguished himself with his with the ball scored in the “Red Devils” T-shirt, along the way he brought his team a minimal victory – 1:0. Such a start gave United fans hope that their club finally got a forward who could be as effective as former Old Trafford idols like Ruud van Nistelrooy or Wayne Rooney, but…
Having received more playing time, Zirkze did not convert the trust of the coaching staff into scored goals, and very soon became only a rotation player. And his goal against Fulham is still the only one for Joshua in the current EPL season, and the Dutchman has already participated in 11 matches, spending a total of 430 minutes on the field.
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, while talking about it with confidence, it is hardly worth it, since according to insiders, the new coach does not count on Joshua too much. They even say that in January the Dutchman may leave Old Trafford and return to Italy, where there are a number of teams willing to sign the ex-Bologna scorer on loan.
Text: meta.ua
Source: sport.ua