Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola has two years left on his contract and has signalled he does not intend to sign a new deal and would like to move on from the French club this summer. Meanwhile, PSG have made multiple attacking signings that seem intended to serve to replace his minutes in the squad.
On the other side of the transfer saga, Liverpool would quite like to sign Barcola to replace departed legend Mohamed Salah. Barcola himself is on board and Liverpool have made an opening £100M
bid. PSG, though, rejected that bid out of hand and said they wanted £145M, which rather seems like the get lost price.
It’s the kind of fee you quote when you don’t actually want to sell a player—which would be fair enough if it weren’t for the fact that based on everything that’s happened around his contract renewal talks and their wing signings, PSG look like they both kind of have to and are resigned to selling Barcola this summer.
From the point of view of the French club, it may just be a case of perceiving Liverpool are desperate and pushing for top dollar as a result. From Liverpool’s point of view, though, there’s now a much increased risk in continuing to pursue Barcola, one that could lead to either a wild overpay or ending the window with nothing.
According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, that has Liverpool prepared to move to alternatives, potentially setting up a situation where they have to go to Plan C after being priced out of Plan B (aka Barcola) by PSG being greedy and Plan A (aka Yan Diomande) only ever using Liverpool to help get his move to Real Madrid.
None of which is ideal, of course. But what would really be not ideal would be getting to Deadline Day and being in a situation where the Reds are desperate enough to pay £145M for Barcola because the alternative is being left with nothing. And hey, if Plan C turns out to be Bournemouth’s Rayan, well, that wouldn’t suck.
