Why £128m Liverpool target could be the “closest thing” to Mo Salah

What is a reasonable objective for Liverpool to set Andoni Iraola ahead of the 2026/27 season?

At the most fundamental level, the Reds need to rediscover themselves, implementing a recognisable brand of high-intensity football. Under Arne Slot last season, it all became a little colourless and opaque, and Liverpool were fortunate to cling onto a fifth-place Premier League finish and thus retain their place in the Champions League.

Disappointment and disillusionment rattled against Anfield’s walls last year, and it was telling that the end of the campaign was met with relief by the Reds persuasion, who, exhausted, needed a break.

Iraola has enough quality at his disposal to launch a title challenge, but he is going to be without an irreplaceable superstar in Mohamed Salah, who has left on a free transfer – and with him, so much of the club’s attacking identity.

Why Salah exit is so concerning for Liverpool

You could argue that while Liverpool had Salah in their ranks last year, the Egyptian King fell by the wayside, so parting with him this summer does not carry the same world-ending connotations as once before.

But Liverpool’s staggering slump flips that argument on its head. Everything went wrong for the Anfield side, and it’s no coincidence that the forwards misfired in the absence of a man who has been the difference-maker so many times across the past nine years.

It goes to show that FSG cannot afford to make a mess of things this summer, that they must not settle for mediocrity. Salah is the fourth-highest goalscorer in Premier League history, and he bagged 257 goals across 442 matches for the Reds in total.

Though efforts to sign Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig fell flat, Liverpool still have an interesting shortlist of targets who could make a real difference on Merseyside.

Victor Munoz, 23, has already been signed for £34.5m, but the versatile winger is bound to play a utility role under Iraola next year, and Liverpool need to aim for a bigger fish.

Liverpool were willing to pay over £100m to sign Diomande, so there is money to be spent on an elite attacker. Who FSG secure may dictate the levels Liverpool reach throughout the 2026/27 campaign.

Liverpool leading race for superstar Salah replacement

Liverpool need more attacking depth before summer is out, but they can’t just bring over any old attacker; Iraola needs forwards who have elite potential, who can play a focal role over the coming years in guiding the Reds back toward the biggest titles.

If Liverpool manage to sign Bradley Barcola from PSG, they may well have found the man to do it.

According to TEAMtalk, Liverpool officials believe they are now leading the race to sign the France sensation, even as Arsenal maintain their own vested interest.

Barcola would cost suitors a £128m fee; that is to say, the two-in-a-row Champions League winners don’t want to sell their rip-roaring attacker.

Could this be the man to replace Salah? He might be a left-sided winger by trade, but Barcola is versatile and offers a directness on the ball that could see him replace, to a degree, Salah’s edge in the final third.

On the right, moreover, he would place more focus on his playmaking, which could actually help Iraola establish greater attacking fluency, servicing Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike (when he returns from his long-term injury layoff).

And given that he has Salah-like tendencies anyway, Liverpool could hit the jackpot, somehow finding someone who can pack a similar punch. Anfield Index’s Dave Hendrick has recently hailed him as a “superstar” forward who is “the closest thing to Salah” that Liverpool might find in the transfer market.

Barcola has not yet refined an attacking edge that would put him alongside the modern greats, but he knows how to score and how to assist. Across all competitions for PSG over the past two years, he has scored 34 goals and supplied 28 assists, leading

analyst and Como scout Ben Mattinson to call him “one of the best left wingers in the world“.

Couple that with the fact that he is far sharper and more athletic than the iteration of Salah who trudged through Slot’s second year at the helm, and you start to see exactly why Liverpool are prepared to pay a significant figure to bring him over.

For Liverpool, Barcola would add the very pieces that have been missing over the past year. He might not be an out-and-out right-sider, but it wouldn’t be the first time a winger has been converted to a new role at the club, with Sadio Mane moved from right to left to accomodate Salah’s arrival in 2017.

In any case, Liverpool would be signing one of the world’s most exciting forwards, beating Arsenal to his signature while at it.