Fabrizio Romano says Bradley Barcola remains Liverpool’s “top top top target” to replace Mohamed Salah. New manager Andoni Iraola’s already told you what else he needs.
One deal’s been building all summer. Bradley Barcola, the PSG winger, has been Liverpool’s most consistent target for weeks, and the noise around it just won’t die down. Romano was blunt about it again this week: “Let me repeat, today, yesterday, last month, 2 months ago, 3 months ago, Barcola is the top top top target of Liverpool.” And then: “I don’t know if it’s going to be possible financially, but what I can tell you is that for sure Liverpool remain super keen on Bradley Barcola.”
When Romano repeats himself that many times, it usually means something. The markets seem to think so too, regardless of how Barcola shakes out. Prices tracked across UK bookmakers, and slot sites, are independently covered by Gambling.com, and have Liverpool at 5/1 for the title, 4/9 for a top-four finish. Nobody’s writing off Anfield, Barcola or no Barcola.
Why Barcola, and why now
Salah’s exit left an obvious hole on the right, and Liverpool have been chasing the answer since before Iraola even started the job officially. Barcola fits what they want, and there’s history to it, too: Liverpool reportedly looked at him even earlier in the window, back when Alexander Isak was the priority. That’s how long he’s been on the radar. He’s not short of other admirers either. Arsenal have circled, and PSG aren’t treating him as untouchable, but they’re not giving him away cheap. L’Equipe’s Emery Taisne has PSG valuing him at €150m, north of £128m. Liverpool are reportedly working with something closer to £85m. That’s a real gap. Gaps like that take time to close. Sometimes they never do.
The winger who’s already arrived
Barcola isn’t the only right-sided answer Liverpool have gone looking for, either. Osasuna’s Victor Munoz became the first signing of the Iraola era after Liverpool moved in on him while he was away at the World Cup with Spain, meeting his release clause of around £35m and beating Newcastle to the deal in the process, not for the first time in the last year. He’s already passed his medical and signed a six-year contract. It’s worth being clear about what that signing is and isn’t: Munoz gives Iraola cover and a different profile on the right, but nobody at Anfield seems to be treating him as the finished answer to the Salah question. That’s still Barcola’s job to do, if the fee ever gets sorted.
Iraola’s own words on what’s needed
The manager hasn’t been cagey about any of this. Ahead of his first pre-season friendly in charge, against Sunderland in Nashville, he laid out exactly where the squad’s short. “We definitely need to sign a winger,” he said. “It’s difficult to say a number of signings when the market is open. You always have to be open to new options to improve the squad. We analyse the market. It depends on a lot of things.” Attack wasn’t the only thing on his mind, either. Centre-back and right-back both came up, too, Konate gone to Real Madrid on a free, Conor Bradley still working his way back from a knee injury he picked up in January’s draw with Arsenal. “With the centre-back, right-back situation, in terms of defensive depth, we are very thin right now,” he said, “so it’s a solution that we are trying to find.” Barcola’s the headline. He’s not the only gap Iraola’s trying to close before the season starts, and defence, by his own account, might be the more urgent one.
What it means for the season ahead
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Iraola’s taken over a squad that finished fifth last season under Arne Slot, a serious step down from the title Slot won in his first year at the club, and the pressure to get back among the contenders starts on day one. He’s walked into a job with a World Cup eating into his preparation time, a right winger’s exit still not fully resolved, and defensive options thinner than he’d like. None of that reads as panic from the outside, more like a squad mid-repair with a clear list of what still needs fixing. A club this insistent about one target for this long usually gets there eventually, one way or another, even if the fee takes a while to sort itself out. For now, Liverpool wait on PSG, wait on the price, and get on with everything else in the meantime, the Munoz deal done, the defensive reinforcements still to come, and Iraola’s first competitive game against Bournemouth, his old club, not all that far away. Fabrizio Romano’s comments were reported in full by CaughtOffside, who’ve been tracking this pursuit closely since it first surfaced.