Michael Owen advises Liverpool on Bradley Barcola transfer
Michael Owen believes Liverpool should be ready to step back from a move for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola if the French club refuse to climb down from their huge asking price.
With Mohamed Salah gone and earlier pursuits of Yan Diomande and Michael Olise falling flat, Liverpool have turned their attention to Barcola as a potential flagship signing for the right flank. The 21-year-old is understood to be open to the move and has, according to reports, already told PSG he does not intend to extend his contract beyond 2028.
The problem is the price. And Owen doesn’t like what he’s hearing.
‘At some point you’ve got to say no’
PSG are reported to want around £145m for Barcola this summer. Liverpool, for their part, are thought to be willing to go to roughly £100m in an attempt to meet in the middle. For Owen, that gap is exactly where the club’s resolve must harden.
“That sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? For someone that’s not proven in the Premier League,” he told the Liverpool Echo when asked about the £145m valuation.
“Obviously played at the highest level, but, yeah, at some point you’ve got to say no, haven’t you? If it gets to £145m, I mean, wow, that’s eye-watering.”
Owen has been consistent in his view of how Liverpool should have approached the post-Salah rebuild on the right. His preferred solution was already in the league.
“I mean, 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.
“But, obviously, that doesn’t look possible anymore, so they’re going to have to.
“And 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.
“But it sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? £145 million, that’s the number that you’re saying.”
The dilemma is clear: Liverpool need a statement wide forward, but PSG are demanding statement-money of a different kind.
A dearth of elite wingers
For Owen, the issue runs deeper than one negotiation. He sees a structural problem in the market and in Liverpool’s squad.
“You know, it used to be Salah, and Mane and Diaz,” he said, reflecting on the days when Liverpool’s wide options terrified defences across Europe.
“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.
“They probably need two. They certainly need one.”
That shortage, combined with Liverpool’s obvious need, only strengthens the hand of selling clubs. Any discussion starts with the knowledge that the Premier League side are hunting for a marquee attacker to reshape their front line.
“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.
“It sounds like they’d be interested, but a lot will depend on the price, I guess.”
Liverpool’s recruitment team now stand at a familiar crossroads: pay “through the nose” to land a highly rated but unproven-in-England winger, or walk away from a fee Owen calls “eye-watering” and gamble on finding value in a market that knows exactly how badly they need a new star.
