Liverpool's Pursuit of Diomande: The Next Salah?

Liverpool’s wide-game rebuild is starting to take shape, and the numbers alone tell you how high the stakes are.

Mohamed Salah has gone. Nine years, a mountain of goals, and a defining era at Anfield have walked out of the door, leaving a vacancy that cannot truly be “replaced”, only reimagined. Liverpool’s recruitment team know it, and their summer strategy is built around one clear priority: a new winger to lead the next cycle.

At the top of the list sits RB Leipzig’s explosive wide forward, Diomande. He is the headline act, the marquee option, and he comes with a price tag to match. Leipzig want around €130million, roughly £112m, and there are serious doubts inside Anfield over whether that figure will ever be met. Even so, Liverpool have not stepped away. Far from it.

Diomande: The Salah heir apparent

Liverpool have already seen a £90m offer rejected, but the response has not been to sulk or move on. Instead, talks have intensified since Andoni Iraola arrived, with the club doubling down on their pursuit of the Ivory Coast international.

Diomande’s World Cup performances have only sharpened the focus. His stock is climbing, his profile growing, and Liverpool are acting like a club that believes this is the moment to strike. Behind the scenes, they have laid out a detailed sporting plan to the player: the tactical framework, the evolution of the team, and the central role he would occupy in it.

The pitch is clear. Diomande is being positioned as Salah’s long-term successor, the man to carry the attacking burden from the right and become one of the faces of a new Liverpool era. Those close to the situation say that idea has resonated strongly with the player. He is excited by the prospect of Anfield, by the chance to step into a role of that magnitude.

Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano has echoed that sense of momentum, stressing that Liverpool’s work is now as much about winning over the player as it is about haggling with Leipzig. The club are pushing to secure Diomande’s “green light” so that he, in turn, can tell Leipzig he wants the move to happen. Inside Anfield, there is growing confidence they can get it done.

But there is a financial reality to respect. If Leipzig refuse to budge from their €130m stance, Liverpool will not be short of alternatives.

Minteh: The £40m wildcard

Enter Yankuba Minteh.

If Liverpool decide Diomande is simply too expensive, the Brighton winger is expected to be one of the first names they move for. Caught Offside report that the 19-year-old is high on the club’s contingency list, with around £40m earmarked for a potential deal.

That is a huge gap in valuation. At £72m cheaper than Diomande, Minteh represents a very different type of play: not a galáctico-style replacement, but a smart, targeted investment in a winger whose profile fits what Iraola wants.

Minteh brings pace. Real pace. He attacks full-backs in one-v-one situations, stretches defensive lines, and offers the kind of direct threat that suits Liverpool’s high-tempo approach. For a coach like Iraola, who demands intensity and verticality, those traits matter as much as any headline number in the goals column.

He would not arrive as “the new Salah” in branding terms, and Liverpool know that. But as a budget-conscious option with room to grow, Minteh ticks plenty of boxes.

A defining call for Liverpool’s new era

This is the crossroads Liverpool now stand at. On one side, Diomande: the statement signing, the anointed heir, the player who would walk into Anfield with all the weight and expectation that Salah’s old shirt carries. On the other, Minteh: the shrewd, cost-effective bet, a winger who could develop into a star rather than being bought as one.

For now, the club’s energy remains fixed on Diomande. The belief inside Anfield is that the player wants the move, that their vision has convinced him, and that pressure from his side could yet force Leipzig to soften their stance.

If they do not, Liverpool will have to decide how far they are willing to go to secure a new attacking leader — and whether the future of their right flank is worth a nine-figure gamble or a £40m roll of the dice on Brighton’s rising wide man.