Liverpool's New Era: Munoz Signed, Diomande Targeted
Liverpool have not waited long to show what life after Mohamed Salah might look like. One deal is done. Another would smash records.
On one flank, they have already moved ruthlessly, hijacking Newcastle’s move for Osasuna winger Victor Munoz with a £34.5m agreement. On the other, they are prepared to go to £86m for RB Leipzig’s teenage phenomenon Yan Diomande – a statement bid that still might not be enough.
Liverpool hijack Newcastle for Munoz
Newcastle thought the hard work was done.
A £33.3m package agreed with Osasuna – £29m up front, £4.3m in add-ons. Personal terms settled. Agent fees sorted. The player had told them he wanted to come. A medical in the United States was being lined up. The path looked clear.
Then the phone went quiet.
Over the last 24 hours of the saga, Munoz’s camp instructed Newcastle to wait. Liverpool, who had never fully left the table, stepped through the gap. By the time the dust settled, the Spain international had committed to a six-year contract at Anfield.
For Newcastle, it is a familiar sting. After the bruising experiences with Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike last summer, they are again trying to piece together how a deal they believed was theirs has slipped away at the final turn.
For Liverpool, it is precisely the kind of opportunistic, decisive move they wanted in the first major window of the Andoni Iraola era.
Munoz arrives as a modern Liverpool forward in all but name: quick, direct, and flexible. Primarily a left winger, he can switch to the right or operate through the middle, giving Iraola the fluid front line he craves and the club the depth they lacked when injuries struck last season.
He is not short on pedigree. Munoz came through the academies of both Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Carlo Ancelotti handing him his LaLiga debut for Madrid in May 2025, sending him on for Vinicius Junior against Barca. A move to Osasuna followed that summer on a five-year deal. Last season he played 34 league games, scoring six times and adding two assists.
Liverpool see more than numbers. They see a player who can stretch games, attack space, and shuffle positions without disrupting the system. Crucially, his versatility is also viewed as compatible with the club’s plans for highly rated youngster Rio Ngumoha, rather than a roadblock to his development.
Diomande: the headline act
Munoz, though, is only part of the rebuild. The marquee target remains Diomande.
Liverpool have signalled a willingness to go to £86m for the 19-year-old Leipzig winger. That figure alone underlines how highly they rate him. It would obliterate the Premier League record fee for a teenager, eclipsing the £58.9m Manchester United agreed to pay Lille for Leny Yoro in the summer of 2024.
Even that may not be enough.
Leipzig, according to reports in Germany, want significantly more to even consider selling a player they signed from Leganes for £17.3m just last summer. They are also ready to offer Diomande a new contract, with a rise on his current wage of around £33,000 per week, and would prefer to keep him for at least one more season.
Their reluctance is easy to understand.
Twelve months ago, Diomande’s senior career amounted to six starts for Leganes as they tumbled out of LaLiga. He scored in two of those matches, against Espanyol and Valladolid, and did enough in that brief window to convince Leipzig to gamble €20m on raw talent.
The bet has paid off handsomely. Diomande has exploded in the Bundesliga – lightning quick, fearless on the ball, and blessed with the kind of improvisation that cannot be coached. He has added the coached elements too, listening, learning, sharpening his decision-making. The result is a winger who is thrilling to watch and a nightmare to contain.
The biggest clubs are circling. Many others simply cannot afford to join the race.
Liverpool, though, are determined to stay in it. Munoz was never viewed as an alternative to Diomande, but as part of a wider plan to reconstruct the attack for the post-Salah era. The intention is clear: multiple signings, multiple profiles, one relentless front line.
Paris Saint-Germain are among the heavyweight rivals chasing Diomande this summer. Leipzig’s stance is firm. Liverpool’s interest is just as firm. Where the teenager ends up remains one of the defining questions of the window.
Iraola’s blueprint – and Chiesa’s dilemma
The arrival of Iraola has sharpened Liverpool’s recruitment focus. His familiarity with LaLiga and with Munoz in particular helped accelerate that deal, with the player even undergoing his medical in the US with Liverpool’s staff.
Iraola wants a forward line that can interchange, press aggressively, and maintain tempo regardless of personnel. Munoz fits. Diomande, if they can prise him from Leipzig, would fit too.
That clarity has consequences for those already at the club, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the case of Federico Chiesa.
Chiesa’s future was uncertain even before the window opened. Under former head coach Arne Slot, the Italy winger started only one Premier League game last season. Iraola is prepared to offer a clean slate and there is a belief inside the club that Chiesa’s skill set – direct, intense, capable in transition – might suit the Spaniard’s style more than Slot’s.
Yet the reality bites. Munoz is in. Another winger, potentially Diomande, is likely to follow in Chiesa’s preferred position. Minutes will be fought for, not handed out.
At 28, with two years left on his deal and interest from Italy, Chiesa wants to be a guaranteed starter. Right now, Anfield does not look like the place where that guarantee can be made.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are pushing ahead. One winger secured in a dramatic late twist, another pursued at a price that would rewrite records. The Salah era is edging into the rear-view mirror. The question now is whether Liverpool can land the final piece of their new attacking puzzle before someone else does.
