Liverpool Pursues Barcola as Salah Successor

Liverpool’s search for the heir to Mohamed Salah has moved into a new, expensive phase – and the spotlight is now fixed firmly on Paris.

Bradley Barcola, once deemed off-limits at Paris Saint-Germain, is suddenly in play. The winger’s camp are actively exploring a move this summer and Liverpool have been given what has been described as a “significant green light” to pursue a deal, with Arsenal also hovering in the background.

This is not a tentative enquiry. This is Liverpool circling a marquee replacement for the most prolific wide forward in their modern history.

From “Untouchable” to Available

A week ago, Barcola’s name sat in the “forget it” column. PSG, fresh from another Ligue 1 title and knee‑deep in their own rebuild, were understood to view the 23-year-old as non-negotiable.

That stance has shifted.

Fabrizio Romano outlined the change in tone, explaining that while Barcola had previously been “untouchable”, the reality now is that he “has serious possibilities to leave Paris in the summer transfer window”. Contract talks between PSG and the player are described as completely stalled, with no agreement in sight on a new deal.

That stalemate has cracked the door open. Liverpool and Arsenal have both been in contact, with Romano stressing that Liverpool have had Barcola at the very top of their winger shortlist since the 2025 summer window planning phase. The admiration is longstanding, not reactive.

For Arsenal, Barcola is admired but not the priority. Their first choice is Rogers, with Barcola sitting as option number two among a wider group of wide targets.

Liverpool’s interest feels sharper. More urgent. Salah’s future demands it.

A Record-Breaking Gamble

There is, of course, a catch. Several, in fact – all of them expensive.

PSG will not sell cheaply. Far from it. The French champions are expected to demand around €150m (£128m, $172m) for Barcola, a fee that would smash Liverpool’s own transfer record. The current benchmark is the £125m they paid Newcastle for Alexander Isak last summer.

TEAMtalk report that Barcola’s camp are now actively weighing up a move and that, if the player turns down another contract renewal offer, PSG will “reluctantly” consider a sale. Reluctant or not, they will insist on a British-record fee.

So Liverpool face a familiar question: how much is too much for potential, even elite potential, in a post-Salah attack?

Diomande Blow Becomes Barcola Opportunity

The pursuit of Barcola comes in the shadow of a different chase that appears to be slipping away.

RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande had been the club’s leading attacking target earlier in the window. The Ivory Coast international looked like the chosen man to spearhead the next era of Liverpool’s front line. Then the wind changed. Diomande is now pushing for a move to PSG, not Anfield.

That twist has had a knock-on effect. Diomande heading to Paris would help fund PSG’s business and, crucially, could make Barcola more expendable. What once seemed like a dead end for Liverpool has become a potential opening.

Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy believes missing out on Diomande might actually work in the club’s favour.

“I don’t think they should have been looking at Diomande for the money they were talking about anyway,” Murphy told BetWright. He labelled the Leipzig forward a “super talent” but stressed that, at this stage, “he’s a prospect” rather than a proven, top-level performer.

Paying over £100m for a player without a substantial body of work never sat right with him. In his eyes, losing Diomande could be “a blessing”.

The Barcola Fit – And the One Big Question

Murphy sees Barcola as a more logical, less risky swing at the top end of the market.

“Barcola would be less expensive and obviously maybe surplus to requirements with the signings PSG are making,” he said, highlighting the impact the winger has already shown in the Champions League over the past couple of seasons. That, for Murphy, makes him a more secure investment at elite level.

There is, though, a tactical wrinkle. Barcola is naturally more comfortable on the left than the right. He can operate off the right flank, but his best work has typically come cutting in from the opposite side – a contrast to Salah’s long-standing role as the left-footed menace on Liverpool’s right.

Murphy recognises that tension. He argues that someone “more used to and suited” to playing on the right might be a cleaner fit as a direct Salah successor. Yet he still lands on the side of opportunity: “Barcola maybe, too, why not?”

Liverpool have already moved once in the wide areas this summer, bringing in Spain international Victor Munoz from Osasuna for around €40m. That deal alone will not reshape an attack that has revolved around Salah for years. It was always going to need a second, bigger statement.

Barcola would be exactly that.

A Squad at a Crossroads

All of this unfolds against a broader backdrop of uncertainty at Anfield. A title win, heavy spending, and still a squad that “needs a bit of reshaping,” as Murphy puts it. The sense of a club caught between cycles is hard to ignore.

“There are all these questions around Liverpool at the moment,” Murphy said. “When you think about winning the league and then what we spent, it’s an incredible conundrum that they’re in really and shouldn’t be in.”

Barcola will not answer all of those questions. He might not even be the final answer on the right-hand side.

But this is where Liverpool now stand: contemplating a British-record outlay on a 23-year-old winger whose arrival would symbolise not just the end of the Salah era, but the start of something entirely different.

Do they lean into that risk and reshape the front line around a new kind of wide forward, or hold their nerve and wait for a more traditional successor?

The green light is there. The price is set. The decision, and the direction of Liverpool’s next era, now rests with Anfield’s hierarchy.