Liverpool's Summer Transfer Dilemmas: Salah's Successor and Alisson's Future
Liverpool’s season is still alive, but the real drama is already forming off the pitch.
A 3-2 defeat at Manchester United has checked their momentum, yet the landscape for Champions League qualification has tilted in their favour. Chelsea’s 3-1 loss to Nottingham Forest has mathematically shut the door on the London club’s top‑five hopes, leaving Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton as the only outsiders with a faint chance of crashing the party.
Liverpool and Aston Villa are locked on 58 points in fourth and fifth, both within reach of those chasing them. The margins are tight. The decisions this club makes over the next few months could be tighter still.
Two pillars of the modern era, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah, are already confirmed departures at the end of the season. Around them, a rebuild gathers pace, names stacking up on shortlists and scouting reports: Yan Diomande, Bradley Barcola, Adam Wharton, Marcos Senesi. The squad that powered Liverpool through the last decade is being dismantled in real time.
Left‑back rethink as Svensson emerges
Even the positions that once felt settled are under review. In Germany, reports have placed Borussia Dortmund’s Daniel Svensson near the top of Liverpool’s list as they look to refresh their defence and increase competition at left‑back.
Dortmund, according to Fussballdaten, want to keep him. But they are a selling club at the right number, and Svensson is not considered “untouchable.” A fee in the region of €35m, potentially rising towards €40–45m with add‑ons, is said to be enough to bring them to the table. Arsenal and Leeds United are also watching.
For Liverpool, it’s another sign that no position is being taken for granted.
Curtis Jones: stay, sell, or risk losing him for nothing?
Few situations capture the tension of this summer quite like Curtis Jones.
Arne Slot has already admitted talks are under way with the midfielder’s camp. So far, there is no breakthrough, no sense that an agreement is close. Outside Anfield, interest is growing. Inter Milan held exploratory conversations in January. Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa are monitoring him.
Back then, Inter were told there was no chance of a late-window exit. That stance will be tested again.
At 25, Liverpool-born, and keen to play a more prominent role at the highest level, Jones sits at a crossroads. Liverpool’s model over the last decade has absorbed the loss of big names on free transfers, but rarely has that applied to players who still have their prime ahead of them.
Fabrizio Romano has gone further, claiming Jones is open to a move to Italy and wanted Inter in January. Speaking to Calcio News24, Romano said Inter remain interested, with Liverpool now needing to set a price as his contract ticks down towards its final year. Other clubs are circling. The player’s openness, he suggests, is a key factor.
For Liverpool, the choice is stark: cash in now, or risk losing another asset for nothing. The days and weeks ahead will tell how ruthless they are prepared to be.
Palace move first as Moustapha Mbow race heats up
Elsewhere, Crystal Palace have tried to steal a march in another market Liverpool are scanning. RMC Sport report that Palace have submitted a “significant” offer to sign Moustapha Mbow from Paris FC, with potential interest from Anfield complicating their pursuit.
Palace’s pitch is simple: regular minutes and a clear path into the first team. Liverpool’s is very different – a place in an elite squad, but with heavier competition. For a young player, that choice is never straightforward.
Pennant’s verdict: “At all costs” for Olise
The question of how Liverpool replace Salah has sparked fierce debate. One former Red believes the answer is obvious.
Jermaine Pennant has urged his old club to go all in for Michael Olise, currently lighting up Bayern Munich and again on the scoresheet in their Champions League thriller against Paris Saint‑Germain.
“Liverpool go out and get Olise right now, at all costs,” he wrote on X. “There is your replacement for Mo Salah. AT ALL COSTS. Any amount plus Gakpo.”
Bayern, though, have no intention of being bullied into a sale. Club figure Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has already insisted they would resist even a world‑record offer this summer. He described Olise as “outstanding,” praised his low‑key personality and acknowledged why the winger has become such a favourite with Bayern supporters.
Liverpool may admire Olise. Prising him away from Bavaria would be another matter entirely.
Alisson and Juventus: a warning shot
As if one pillar leaving wasn’t enough, doubts have now been thrown over the future of Alisson Becker.
Journalist Nicolo Schira claims the Brazilian has agreed personal terms with Juventus on a contract running until 2029 worth €5m per year. According to his report, Juve have opened talks with Liverpool, who have yet to decide whether to cash in on their No.1.
For now, this is a negotiation in its early stages, not a done deal. But even the suggestion of Alisson’s openness to a move is a jolt. Losing Salah and Alisson in the same window would reshape the spine of the team overnight.
Will Wright steps out of the shadows
Not every story is about a superstar leaving. Some are about the next name trying to break through.
Will Wright arrived quietly last summer, overshadowed by Liverpool’s record spending elsewhere. Now the 18‑year‑old is edging into the light. After making the bench for the last two Premier League games, he will spend this week training again with the first team ahead of Chelsea’s visit on Saturday.
With Salah and Hugo Ekitike absent and doubts over Alexander Isak’s fitness, there is an outside chance Wright could be handed his senior full debut. At the very least, a late cameo is in play.
On a day when transfer rumours swirl around established stars, Wright’s rise is a reminder of another route Liverpool still value: development from within.
Diomande, Barcola and the search for Salah’s successor
The Diomande story has been simmering for months.
Liverpool have made no secret of the fact they are scouring the market for a wide forward to succeed Salah. They refuse to discuss specific names while their European status remains technically unresolved, but inside the club there is quiet confidence that Slot’s side will be back in the Champions League next season. That changes the budget. It changes the calibre of player they can realistically chase.
Their relationship with RB Leipzig, forged over the last decade, gives them a natural line into talks for Yan Diomande. Sources in Germany have told the ECHO that Diomande’s representatives at Roc Nation are speaking to several major European clubs, Liverpool among them, about the 19‑year‑old.
Marca also report that Liverpool have taken a closer look at both Diomande and Bradley Barcola as long‑term options for the right flank. Replacing Salah is not just about goals; it is about profile, balance and how the new forward connects with the rest of the attack.
Slot laid out that thinking when asked about getting the best out of Alexander Isak next season. He pointed to the modern trend of inverted wingers – left footers on the right, right footers on the left – and highlighted the impact of right‑footed crosses from Trent Alexander-Arnold on Isak’s scoring record. The plan, he made clear, is to sign the best player Liverpool can realistically afford, not simply chase the biggest name in the world.
Diomande, with pace to burn and years of development ahead of him, fits the type. Whether he becomes the chosen one is another question.
Carragher’s three‑signing blueprint
Outside the club, the diagnosis is blunt. Jamie Carragher has looked at Liverpool’s season and voiced concern about where they are heading under Slot.
The title defence has unravelled despite a lavish summer spend that many expected to catapult them back to the top. For Carragher, the strategy felt “almost Real Madrid” – chasing big names for big fees – rather than the more precise, data‑driven recruitment that underpinned the Jurgen Klopp era.
He believes the solution is targeted, not scattergun. No repeat of last summer’s six‑ or seven‑player overhaul. Instead, three signings in three key areas: a right winger to replace Salah, a right‑back, and a central midfielder. Get those right, he argues, and last summer’s arrivals – Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz – will look better in a more balanced structure.
It is a call for clarity after a chaotic year.
Senesi, Wharton and the Premier League talent hunt
Closer to home, Liverpool are weighing moves for players already proven in English football.
talkSPORT report that Marcos Senesi has a verbal agreement to join Tottenham once his Bournemouth contract expires, subject to Spurs avoiding relegation. Liverpool retain an interest and are understood to be considering a rival offer. The Argentinian defender was originally brought to Bournemouth by Richard Hughes, now Liverpool’s sporting director, which only fuels the speculation.
In midfield, Adam Wharton has surged onto the radar. Marca claim Liverpool have maintained “advanced contacts” over the Crystal Palace player, while AS Diario report that Palace will not entertain bids below €80m. Manchester City, Manchester United and Real Madrid are also tracking the England international.
These are the kind of battles Liverpool must be prepared to win if they want to refresh the core of their squad without losing ground to their domestic and European rivals.
A squad in flux, a club at a crossroads
Names, numbers, negotiations. Behind each one lies a bigger question.
What will Liverpool look like without Salah? Can they afford to lose Alisson? Do they cash in on Curtis Jones or build around him? Is this the summer they return to the smart, surgical recruitment that took them to the summit under Klopp, or the moment the rebuild drifts into something less coherent?
The answers will not come in a single announcement or unveiling. They will arrive piece by piece, in the deals Liverpool make, the ones they walk away from, and the young players they trust.
The window has not yet opened, but the stakes are already clear.
