Earlier today, word out of France had Paris Saint-Germain holding off on any approach for Yan Diomande unless and until the player signalled they were his first choice.
With Liverpool having made an initial bid for the player and all the chatter suggesting another was in the works after RB Leipzig rejected their opening €100M offer, we at least took that as a sign that Liverpool had been given significant encouragement from the player.
That turns out to have very much not been the case, as only hours
later word out of Diomande’s camp is that PSG are very much his first choice and if he departs Leipzig this summer it will be to join the Parisian sportswashers.
So. Womp womp and thanks for coming out, Liverpool. One does have to wonder where all the optimistic chatter from Liverpool’s connected journalists over the past month came from, not to mention that opening €100M bid, for a player who it turns out heavily favoured another destination.
There will also be questions asked if, assuming Diomande was the clear first choice for the Reds and the player was at least open to the move previously, the club missed the boat by not finding a way to get the deal done before the World Cup kicked off.
Still, however we got here this is the reality now. Liverpool have missed on their top target to replace Mohamed Salah, and the pressure on sporting director Richard Hughes will increase.
Hughes failed last summer to give head coach Arne Slot a balanced squad, in particular failing to replace Luis Diaz after choosing to sell him to Bayern Munich. While Slot underperformed and found himself sacked, Hughes’ questionable team building decisions clearly played a role.
He also has been burned by a potential big name signing before, believing he had signed midfielder Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad only to have the player reverse course and pull the plug at the last minute.
Now, Hughes is trying to correct his wing mistakes for new head coach Andoni Iraola—and all while rumours swirl that he’ll be popping the parachute and abandoning the club to head to the Saudi Pro league at the close of the transfer window.
PSG star Bradley Barcola has regularly been talked about as the Plan B on the wing for if Plan A, aka Diomande, fails. Hopefully Barcola will actually want to join Liverpool and Hughes can do a better job of closing that deal than he did completing the Diomande transfer.
