Liverpool's Summer Rebuild: More One-on-One Firepower
Liverpool’s summer rebuild out wide is starting to take shape – and it’s being driven by one clear demand from Anfield: more one-v-one firepower.
The Premier League champions have already made their first big move. Victor Munoz, fresh from winning the FIFA World Cup with Spain, has arrived from Osasuna in a £34 million deal, a 23-year-old winger signed to attack full-backs and stretch games on his own.
He will not be the last.
Mohamed Salah’s departure on a lucrative free transfer to Trabzonspor has blown a sizeable hole in Liverpool’s right flank. The club’s response has been aggressive. Richard Hughes is deep in negotiations for Bradley Barcola, the Paris Saint-Germain winger valued at a staggering £145m by the French champions. Liverpool are pushing, but they know that number has to fall before the window shuts on September 1.
For now, Barcola is the headline name. He may not be the only one.
Minteh talks heat up
As the Barcola pursuit rumbles on, Liverpool have turned up the volume on another long-standing target: Yankuba Minteh.
The Gambian winger, currently at Brighton, has already drawn two bids from Merseyside, worth £50m and £60m. Brighton’s stance has been blunt. They want around £70m and are refusing to budge, according to reports.
Liverpool see Minteh as a major piece in their reshaped forward line. Brighton see him as a premium asset in a market starved of top-level wide players. The gap in valuation is real, but the interest is serious.
Mbaye deal collapses over price
One player drifting away from Anfield, at least for now, is Ibrahim Mbaye.
The 18-year-old PSG winger, a Senegal international, had been strongly linked with Liverpool in recent weeks. Reports suggested personal terms on a five-year contract were already in place. That was quickly played down by club sources, who described the interest as “exploratory” rather than advanced.
Now the numbers have killed it.
RMC Sport report that PSG want €70m (£60m) to let the homegrown attacker leave. Liverpool’s recruitment team have stepped back. Internally, the club are said to value Mbaye closer to €50m (£43m) and are not willing to go near PSG’s asking price, or even as high as €60m, despite the fact PSG have made it clear he is available this summer and has two years left on his contract.
The report states: “Liverpool remain interested in Ibrahim Mbaye, and the player has agreed terms with the English club on a future contract. However, at this stage, Liverpool is not prepared to invest €70 million in the Paris Saint-Germain player.”
Mbaye, who prefers to operate off the right, already owns a handful of titles at this early stage of his career, but he is still a project. At €70m, Liverpool would be paying almost entirely for potential. For Andoni Iraola, arriving into a title-winning squad that must defend its crown, that level of risk in such a key position does not fit the brief. He needs wingers who can deliver from day one.
The price, not the player, has turned Liverpool away.
Barcola, Minteh… and then what?
RMC are clear: the Merseysiders have been deterred from pursuing Mbaye at PSG’s valuation. The focus has shifted back towards deals they consider more realistic.
Inside Liverpool, the emerging plan is simple enough. Club reporters indicate that Barcola plus one more winger is the target for this window. That “one more” increasingly looks like Minteh, not Mbaye.
The logic is ruthless. If Minteh arrives, Mbaye does not. With Barcola also in the frame, Liverpool are unlikely to commit another huge fee on a teenager still finding his way at senior level.
The champions want wide players who can beat a man, change a game, and keep them at the top of English football. Whether that future belongs to Barcola and Minteh now depends on how hard Liverpool push – and how far their rivals are willing to bend.
