Liverpool make £116m Salah clone their “top” target

Liverpool intend to challenge for the Premier League title next season, and they intend to remind outfits across Europe that they have the quality to win the Champions League too.

If you took the 2025/26 season in isolation, you’d perhaps laugh at Liverpool’s ambitions. They fell by the wayside across Arne Slot’s second term in charge – and it was a hard landing.

Premier League champions no more, Liverpool are the hunters once again. Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson have left on free transfers, and their vacancies constitute only one slice of a sprawling rebuild.

Andoni Iraola‘s exciting arrival could change everything at Anfield, but the high-intensity, front-footed tactician needs fresh parts if he is to get a tune out of this squad.

Romano confirms World Cup star at the top of Liverpool’s list

Liverpool have already signed Victor Munoz this summer, but the former Osasuna winger will not reshape Liverpool’s frontline on his own.

To replace an attacker of Salah’s standing, FSG need to sign someone truly fantastic, and Yan Diomande was earmarked as the man for the job.

Alas, the Ivorian winger played the Reds like a fiddle, leveraging his position with rival suitors Paris Saint-Germain through Liverpool’s formal approach.

Diomande, 19, is one of the most talented young wingers in the game, and he would have provided Iraola with the perfect profile on the right. It’s frustrating, but Liverpool need to turn elsewhere.

According to Fabrizio Romano, PSG forward Bradley Barcola is “at the top of the list”, though whether the Parisians will budge on their stance remains to be seen.

Romano claims that the winger is “open to a different future” after several trophy-laden years, but given that he “could be a target for Arsenal” as well, FSG may need to act quickly.

Luis Enrique’s side are adamant that the 23-year-old is not for sale, but there is a tentative £116m valuation in place, and Barcola asserted after France’s thumping World Cup win over Sweden that he is unsure what the future holds.

Why Liverpool should sign Barcola

The transfer market is in a tricky spot. Some might baulk at Barcola’s sky-high price tag, but PSG would rightly point toward Manchester City’s expected £116m signing of Elliot Anderson when determining the French winger’s value.

That’s economics for you, and it’s something Liverpool are going to have to deal with, if they do indeed want a winger who could pack a Salah-like punch for Iraola.

There is certainly something new and honest about the way Barcola plays football. Like a kid in a playground, and all that. But it’s true: he runs with such elegance and pace, an electric-powered winger with a desire to impress.

Across the past two seasons in France, Barcola has scored 34 goals and supplied 28 assists for his title-winning outfit. PSG are the definitive superpower of their day, and Barcola is now looking for a more prominent role after growing into his skin in his homeland’s capital.

Barcola does not offer the kind of devastating attacking quality that

Perspective of Salah’s brilliance has been somewhat skewed by the simple fact that he has been a victim of Father Time over the past year or so. The winger was once among the most devastating runners in the game, blitzing past defenders and finding space and striking on goal and scoring.

In principle, you knew what he was going to do, but he did it anyway, and he did it well. In a sense, the same can be said for Barcola, whose direct approach and eagerness to find space and strike on goal make him a rare kind of attacking profile.

Hailed as “one of the best left wingers in the world” by analyst and Como scout Ben Mattinson, Barcola is a force to be reckoned with, and not only will he bring an edge that could rival Salah’s in his Liverpool heyday, but he can help bring some creative spark to the fold too. He only laid on one assist in Ligue 1 last season, but he created 11 big chances, with 4.50 in xA (expected assists).

At Liverpool, he could be the perfect dance partner for the likes of Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak. He is certainly showing his potential with Les Bleus at the World Cup.

Liverpool need to get this deal done. Judging from Barcola’s role at PSG over the past few years, he has world-class quality to offer Iraola’s side – and much more besides.