Liverpool's Winger Hunt: Barcola and Minteh

Liverpool’s winger hunt has circled Bradley Barcola for months, but the picture is getting messier by the day. The France international is lighting up the World Cup, Paris Saint-Germain are demanding a fortune, and Arsenal are edging to the front of the queue. So Richard Hughes is doing what good sporting directors do when the numbers and the noise start to clash: he’s widening the lens.

Barcola: Elite target, brutal price

Barcola has been part of a ferocious France attack this summer, a frontline that has rattled in 16 goals across six World Cup games. Now comes Spain in the semi-final, and with Desire Doué pushing him hard for a starting place, every minute on the pitch feels like another line on the sales brochure.

Once France’s campaign ends, the focus snaps back to his club future. Barcola is understood to be open to leaving PSG. His minutes under Luis Enrique have shrunk, and the French champions are lining up further attacking signings in Yan Diomande and Maghnes Akliouche. Two more forwards through the door, and something has to give.

Barcola has already paused talks over a contract that runs for only two more years. That stand-off nudges PSG towards a decision they would rather avoid: cash in now or risk losing leverage later. The problem for Liverpool is that “cash in” in Paris means something very different to most clubs.

Sources insist PSG will demand a fee beyond the current British transfer record. That level of pricing instantly turns the chase into a heavyweight bout, and Arsenal are already moving their feet.

Daily Mail journalist Lewis Steele revealed over the weekend that the Gunners see themselves as well placed if PSG open the exit door.

He said Arsenal insiders “believe that Arsenal are top of the race for Barcola”, though he also stressed there is still no certainty the winger actually leaves Paris this summer. The interest is real. The situation is not yet.

Liverpool remain in the conversation, but at those numbers, they need escape routes. One of them now has a name and a price.

Minteh moves up the list

TalkSPORT report that Liverpool are giving serious thought to a move for Yankuba Minteh, the Brighton winger long admired by the club’s recruitment team.

The 21-year-old Gambian has been on their radar since at least June 2024, when he first appeared on FSG’s list of attacking options. At that stage, he was one of six wide players being monitored. Now, according to the latest claims, the discussion has shifted from scouting notes to plotting a concrete approach.

Minteh has been tagged as “lightning quick” and “extremely dangerous”, the kind of profile Liverpool have repeatedly backed in the market. A left-footer operating off the right, he fits the template that once turned a raw Mohamed Salah into a phenomenon.

Brighton, though, rarely roll over. The south-coast club are open to selling their best players, but only on their terms. They drive hard bargains and almost always extract top value. A £70m figure has been floated around Minteh, and while that sits some distance below Barcola’s projected cost, it still demands conviction.

Journalist David Lynch believes the move makes football sense. Comparing Minteh with other Liverpool-linked wide players Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Said El Mala, he admitted the Brighton man’s numbers last season were modest — just three goals and four assists in 34 appearances in the 2025/26 campaign — but he still leans towards him.

For Lynch, it’s about fit rather than raw output. Minteh’s Premier League experience, his natural left-footed threat from the right, and his work without the ball tick boxes Liverpool care about.

Lynch argued that Brighton’s style may have held him back, with Minteh often stationed very wide and rarely funneled into central scoring areas. Under Andoni Iraola at Anfield, the picture could change. A more direct, aggressive system, with wingers encouraged to attack the box, might unlock the player Brighton have only hinted at.

“He also works incredibly hard off the ball. His defensive numbers are great,” Lynch noted, a line that will not go unnoticed at a club that still demands intensity from its forwards.

Barcola still the dream

For all the talk of alternatives, the ideal outcome for Liverpool has not shifted. Barcola remains the A-list target.

Lynch made that point bluntly. The market behind Diomande and Barcola is thin at the very top, and the gap in quality is clear enough that, in his view, Liverpool should “go and get Barcola if you can”. Only when that door slams shut, he suggests, should Minteh move from strong option to primary plan.

That is the tightrope Hughes must walk. Push hard enough on Barcola to be taken seriously by PSG and the player’s camp, without getting dragged into a bidding war that explodes the wage structure and the budget for the rest of the window. Keep Minteh close enough to move quickly if the Paris price becomes absurd or Arsenal finally make their play.

A wider storm around Salah and the rebuild

All of this unfolds against a broader backdrop. Liverpool’s attack is entering a period of flux.

Reports claim a “shock” new suitor has joined the race to sign club legend Salah, with a move to Saudi Arabia or Major League Soccer now viewed as the likeliest next step if he does depart. Lose that level of guaranteed output and aura, and the need for a new right-sided forward shifts from long-term planning to immediate necessity.

There is more. Liverpool are also wrestling with “complications” in a move for a £34m-rated Mexico sensation, despite claims that initial contact over a deal has already been made. One pursuit stalls, another inflates, a third suddenly opens up. This is what a modern elite rebuild looks like: overlapping negotiations, shifting valuations, and the constant threat of a rival club arriving with a bigger offer or a quicker promise.

For now, the boardroom calculations are clear enough. Barcola is the statement. Minteh is the scalable project. The rest of the list is there if both slip away.

Liverpool have built eras before on the right winger they chose. The next one might be decided in the gap between PSG’s demands and Brighton’s resolve.