Liverpool Targets Barcola and Minteh Amid Mbaye Deal Collapse

Liverpool’s summer brief is brutally simple: add elite one-v-one threats out wide and rebuild an attack that has just lost Mohamed Salah.

The first move is already in the books. Victor Munoz, a 23-year-old FIFA World Cup winner, has arrived from Osasuna in a £34 million deal, a significant early statement from the Premier League champions. But Munoz is only part of a wider reshaping. Salah has walked away on a lucrative free to Trabzonspor, ripping a huge hole out of Liverpool’s right flank and forcing the club to think aggressively – and carefully – in the market.

Barcola the marquee target

High on the list sits Bradley Barcola. Liverpool’s new sporting director Richard Hughes has been working on a deal for the Paris Saint-Germain winger, who PSG value at a staggering £145 million.

That figure is far from Liverpool’s liking. The champions are banking on the clock, and on market pressure, to drag that price down before the window slams shut on September 1. Barcola is seen as a potential headline arrival, the kind of wide forward who can dismantle a low block on his own and stretch defences that grew increasingly wary of Liverpool’s patterns last season.

The club’s recruitment plan points towards Barcola plus one more wide option. That “one more” is becoming clearer.

Minteh talks crank up

Attention has swung hard towards Yankuba Minteh. The Gambian winger has been on Liverpool’s radar for the long term, and this window has brought that interest into the open.

Two bids have already gone in from Merseyside, believed to be worth £50 million and £60 million. Brighton, though, are holding their ground. Reports suggest they will not entertain anything under £70 million, confident in both the player’s trajectory and the wider market for attacking talent.

Liverpool see Minteh as a live, realistic option. The pursuit has real energy behind it now, and with the club unlikely to sign three wingers in one window, that has major implications elsewhere.

Mbaye deal collapses under PSG demands

Those implications are being felt most by Ibrahim Mbaye.

The 18-year-old PSG winger, a Senegal international, had been heavily linked with Anfield. Reports last week even claimed he had agreed personal terms on a five-year contract with Liverpool. That was quickly played down by club insiders, who insisted the interest was only “exploratory”.

Now the picture is clearer: the move has effectively fallen apart on price.

RMC Sport reports that Luis Enrique’s side want around €70 million (£60 million) to let the homegrown attacker leave. For a teenager still very much in the development phase, that number has landed badly at Anfield.

Liverpool, according to the same report, rate Mbaye closer to €50 million (£43 million). The gap is not small. It is decisive.

RMC 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. Internally, the English club, which has explored other options, is reportedly unwilling to even go as high as €60 million, given that Mbaye still has two years remaining on his contract with PSG and the Parisian club has made it clear that he is free to leave this summer.”

PSG’s stance is bold: he can go, but only on their terms. Liverpool’s response is just as firm: not at that price.

Iraola wants certainty, not speculation

There is also a tactical and managerial layer to this. Andoni Iraola steps into a Liverpool side that expects to win now. He needs wingers who can deliver from day one, not just in three years’ time.

Paying £60 million purely for upside is a risk the club are not willing to take at this stage, especially with Salah gone and immediate end-product required on the right. Mbaye prefers that side of the pitch, but so did Salah. The bar for his replacement is brutally high.

Liverpool’s recruitment team know they cannot afford to miss on a major attacking signing this summer. Every big fee has to land. Every wide player has to change games, not just promise to.

Barcola and Minteh the likely solution

Inside the club, the plan is becoming more defined. Liverpool reporters suggest the blueprint is Barcola plus one more winger, not a triple swoop.

That makes the Minteh chase even more significant. The increased focus on the Brighton man, combined with the refusal to meet PSG’s €70 million demand for Mbaye, points strongly towards a clean break from the Mbaye deal.

If Liverpool get their way, the winger shake-up for the champions will be built around Barcola and Minteh, flanking Munoz and the existing core. The question now is simple: can they bend two stubborn selling clubs to their will before the window shuts?