Even assuming Liverpool get the signing of Bradley Barcola across the line before the transfer window slams shut, the Reds seem in desperate need of a few more signings to avoid setting up new head coach Andoni Iraola for failure by providing him with a thin and unbalanced squad.
One of the biggest needs is at right wing, where Liverpool basically currently have nobody in the senior squad who’s a natural fit for the position and are relying on playing young Rio Ngumoha out of position—something that
didn’t seem to especially work out in the opener against Newcastle.
For much of the past month, the rumoured top target for the position was Paris Saint-Germain’s 18-year-old Senegal international Ibrahim Mbaye. Today, though, it appears that Mbaye is instead headed to Aston Villa after the Birmingham club agreed a €55M (£47) deal to sign him from PSG.
The price is roughly in line with what PSG were rumoured to be asking of Liverpool, and given the current state of the market it almost seems reasonable for a player who despite his young age made 31 first team appearances for the Ligue 1 side last season with a goal involvement every 248 minutes.
Those numbers aren’t elite, perhaps, but in a market where Brighton want as much as £80M for a 22-year-old Yankuba Minteh who has a goal involvement every 350 minutes, it almost seems reasonable given Mbaye’s clear upside, and some will now be asking where the Reds are in all of this.
Perhaps this is all setting up for Liverpool to swoop back in and steal Mbaye away from Villa now that a fee has been agreed, but that fee seems like one they could have sorted out with PSG at basically any point this summer if they’d really wanted to get the deal done, so who really knows.
