Liverpool's Bold Attack Reshuffle: Barcola, Sarr, and Minteh
Liverpool are trying to rip up their forward line in the final 36 hours of the window – and they are aiming high.
Bradley Barcola is all but through the door from Paris Saint-Germain, a marquee summer signing waiting on the official Anfield unveiling. Yet inside the club there is a clear feeling: he cannot be the last attacker to arrive before Tuesday’s 11pm deadline.
The plan is bold. Secure another winger, then sign off on Cody Gakpo’s £85m switch to Manchester City. Gakpo had once looked destined for Tottenham Hotspur, but City’s late entrance into the race changed everything. The Etihad, the project, the pull – the Dutchman wants the move.
That leaves Liverpool scrambling to reshape their frontline at speed.
Sarr the favourite, Minteh the dream
Talks are active for Ismaila Sarr. Fabrizio Romano and several leading reporters say Liverpool are in negotiations with Crystal Palace over a late deal for the Senegal international, while GIVEMESPORT’s Ben Jacobs reports that Sarr is “pushing” Palace to let him go.
Jacobs adds that Liverpool, while exploring more than one option, have Sarr at the top of their list. Palace’s reluctance to sell is the main obstacle.
Yet even if Sarr walks through the door before the deadline, Liverpool’s ambitions do not stop there. Foot Mercato journalist El-Hadji Loum has claimed on X that the club ideally want to add Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh as well.
That is where the numbers start to bite. Liverpool have already seen a £60m offer for Minteh rejected. To land both Sarr and Minteh now would push the outlay well beyond £100m in the closing hours of the window. Loum stresses it will come down to the budget. The desire is there; the finances may not be.
Rebuilding the fear factor
The urgency is easy to understand. Liverpool are coming off a disappointing 2025-26 campaign and have opened the new Premier League season with back-to-back draws against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest.
The attack no longer carries the same inevitability it once did, particularly after the departure of Mohamed Salah. The edge has dulled. The goals have slowed.
Barcola, Sarr and Minteh, though, would change the mood overnight. Three wide forwards, all quick, all direct, all willing to run at defenders and drag backlines into chaos. That sort of pace stretches games, forces mistakes and carves out space for the creators and finishers around them.
If Liverpool get their way, those runners would be tasked with creating room for the likes of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz to do damage between the lines and in the box, transforming a static attack into something far more unpredictable.
Minteh in particular has caught the eye. Senior sports writer Charlie Parker-Turner hailed the Brighton winger’s display recently, writing that Kaoru Mitoma and Minteh were “simply unstoppable” and that Georginio Rutter “brings out the best in them both.” Performances like that explain why Liverpool are pushing so hard.
Explosive pace, relentless running, a front line that can go from flat to ferocious in a heartbeat – that is what Andoni Iraola is chasing as he tries to drag Liverpool back into the title conversation.
Now it comes down to the final hours, the final calls, and whether the owners are willing to pay for the kind of attack that can scare the league again.
