Given how things have unfolded for Liverpool so far this summer regarding their efforts to sign a top wing talent and successor to Mohamed Salah, we’ll believe a deal is done when the club is posting videos of the player talking about how he always dreamed of playing at Anfield.
To be entirely honest, I’m not even sure we’ll fully believe it then.
Still, with less than a week to run in the summer transfer window and the Reds in desperate need of getting a few signings across the line to avoid writing
off the 2026-27 season before it’s properly begun, we’ve finally got what seems like positive movement late today on the Bradley Barcola front.
At least according to The Times’ Paul Joyce and Martyn Ziegler, as of Wednesday evening in Liverpool the Reds and embattled sporting director Richard Hughes believe they are close to finally prying Barcola away from Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG started out the summer demanding €175M (£150M) for Barcola while the Reds earlier submitted a €117M (£100M) offer for the 23-year-old French international that was rejected out of hand. Over the past week, reports out of France suggested PSG’s stance had softened slightly and they would now accept €145M (£125M) for the player and that Liverpool were preparing an offer that would meet that.
English reports soon came out to tamp down expectations, suggesting negotiations weren’t quite that advanced, actually, and that the two sides hadn’t yet reached a compromise both could live with.
Now, it’s reported the final fee expected to be submitted by Liverpool shortly—and, rather crucially, accepted by PSG—is to be closer to €135M (£115M). Given the larger state of the transfer market, if true it’s a fee that while certainly high most will be likely to grudgingly accept is simply the cost of doing business for a top attacking talent at the moment.
As to whether it’s true, no matter how generally reliable someone like Joyce in particular and The Times more generally might be expected to be, we’re just gonna point straight back to the opening paragraph and then cross our fingers, toes, legs, and arms.
Liverpool quite simply need to get this done. There is no other alternative at this point. It shouldn’t have taken this long and there will be plenty of remaining questions about other problem points in the squad, but done—no matter how late—is at the very least better than not done.
