Liverpool\u2019s push to sign Bradley Barcola may be one of the defining deals of the summer, but it may also be only the beginning of a wider reshaping of the squad.<\/p>\n
The French forward had enjoyed a brilliant 2024-25, though his role at PSG was reduced sharply after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia arrived to occupy the left side. Barcola\u2019s starts in Ligue 1 and the Champions League both dropped last season, and his output suffered as he became the backup option. PSG have already moved to replace him, too, by agreeing a deal for Belgium international Mika Godts earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Liverpool are now close to landing the 23-year-old, with a fee that could reach $163 million (\u00a3120 million) after PSG\u2019s original demands. That would put him just behind the club\u2019s outlay on Alexander Isak last summer, and potentially make him the second most expensive player in Premier League history.<\/p>\n
Even so, Barcola would not directly address Liverpool\u2019s biggest problem from the start of the summer. Mohamed Salah\u2019s departure left a major gap on the right flank, and Dominik Szoboszlai was used there only as cover last season. At present, Liverpool do not have a natural right winger.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s thinking is not about replacing Salah\u2019s numbers one for one, but about improving the left side with Barcola and finding rhythm through the middle with Florian Wirtz. A specialist on the right is still required, though. Rio Ngumoha, V\u00edctor Mu\u00f1oz and Cody Gakpo are all left wingers, and Ngumoha\u2019s start on the right against Newcastle United in the season opener did not work.<\/p>\n
That is why Liverpool may still look at names such as Yankuba Minteh, Isma\u00efla Sarr, Ibrahim Mbaye, Pedro Neto and Rayan, while The Athletic now also reports Iliman Ndiaye is of interest.<\/p>\n
The financial picture is equally significant. Before Barcola, this was a relatively restrained window, but the total spend could rise to around $285 million (\u00a3210 million). Liverpool have yet to bring in much through sales, with Curtis Jones the only notable fee so far.<\/p>\n
Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa were left out of the bench against Newcastle, while Cody Gakpo could become a candidate for departure if Liverpool decide to free up funds and reduce left-wing congestion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool\u2019s move for Bradley Barcola could force more changes, with right-wing needs and sales still in play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,238,1031],"tags":[182],"class_list":["post-18785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-manchester-city","category-paris-saint-germain","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}