Michael Owen advises Liverpool on Bradley Barcola transfer
Liverpool’s search for a successor to Mohamed Salah has led them to Bradley Barcola – but Michael Owen believes the club should be ready to slam the brakes on the deal if Paris Saint-Germain refuse to budge on a huge asking price.
The former Liverpool striker, speaking to the Liverpool Echo, did not mince his words when confronted with reports that PSG want around £145m for the 21-year-old winger.
“That sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? For someone that’s not proven in the Premier League,” Owen said, describing the fee as “eye-watering” and insisting there has to be a line Liverpool refuse to cross.
Liverpool’s Salah problem
Liverpool’s need is obvious. Salah’s departure has ripped a hole out of the right side of their attack, and the club have already missed out on two leading candidates in Yan Diomande and Michael Olise. The search has now swung towards Barcola, who has already shown at PSG that he can live at the top end of the European game.
Crucially, reports suggest Barcola has told PSG he does not intend to extend his contract beyond 2028, a stance that gives Liverpool encouragement that the player is gettable. The problem is the price.
PSG are said to be holding out for about £145m. Liverpool, for their part, are understood to be willing to go to around £100m – still a colossal outlay – but Owen believes that if the French champions refuse to compromise, Liverpool should simply walk away.
“At some point you’ve got to say no, haven’t you?” he said. “If it gets to £145m, I mean, wow, that’s eye-watering.”
A different solution Owen preferred
Owen has already nailed his colours to a different mast. Earlier in the summer he publicly backed a move for West Ham’s Jared Bowen as the ideal Salah replacement.
“I went on record a couple of months ago saying if I was Liverpool, I’d go and try to get Jared Bowen from West Ham to replace Salah. I thought that made a lot of sense,” he said.
That ship, though, appears to have sailed. Bowen is now seen as effectively unattainable, leaving Liverpool to look elsewhere and, in Barcola, at a player whose profile and availability tick many of the right boxes – but whose valuation threatens to blow apart even a modern superclub’s budget.
The desperation premium
Owen recognises the trap Liverpool find themselves in. Lose Salah, fail with primary targets, and suddenly every selling club knows you are desperate. That desperation adds tens of millions to any negotiation.
“The problem is everybody knows you’re desperate for a top-class player, so you’re going to have to pay through the nose. That might be just what you have to do,” he admitted, before circling back again to that £145m figure. “But it sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? £145 million, that’s the number that you’re saying.”
Barcola is young, versatile, and already operating at Champions League level. He fits the kind of long-term attacking profile Liverpool have often pursued. Yet even with that in mind, Owen’s message is clear: there is a difference between paying a premium and getting dragged into a bidding war that distorts your entire squad-building strategy.
A winger shortage at Anfield
Owen also highlighted a broader issue: Liverpool’s once-overflowing supply of elite wide forwards has thinned alarmingly.
“You know, it used to be Salah, and Mane and Diaz,” he said. “There’s so many great wide players [at Liverpool] over the years. And it feels like there’s a dearth of them, of course, now at Liverpool.”
In his view, Liverpool are not just one winger short.
“They probably need two. They certainly need one.”
That shortage only magnifies the pressure on the club’s recruitment team. Get this one wrong, and Liverpool risk entering a crucial phase of the season without the cutting edge that has defined them for years.
Barcola: quality on the market – at what cost?
From Owen’s perspective, Barcola is not the issue. The market is.
“So, yeah, I mean, they do probably need to invest heavily in that type of position. And he [Barcola] seems to be one that’s available, that’s got the quality. And it sounds like there’s no smoke without fire,” he said.
“It sounds like they’d be interested, but a lot will depend on the price, I guess.”
That’s where the stand-off sits. Liverpool, armed with cash and urgency, circling a player who wants clarity on his future. PSG, under no pressure to sell, naming a figure that makes even a former Ballon d’Or winner wince.
At some point, Liverpool must decide: pay through the nose for Barcola, or walk away and gamble that another solution exists in a market starved of top-class wingers.
