Liverpool's Salah Gamble Criticized: Warnock Highlights Missed £62.5m Opportunity
Liverpool’s decision to walk into a post-Mohamed Salah era without a like-for-like right-sided replacement has been branded a major risk – and Stephen Warnock believes the real regret at Anfield might lie elsewhere on the market.
The club’s headline move of the summer was the £123m capture of Bradley Barcola, a deal that landed just before the window slammed shut and fell just short of a club-record fee. The Frenchman arrives with a brutal weight of expectation: help fill the void left by Salah, a player who climbed to third on Liverpool’s all-time scoring charts and became a symbol of the club’s modern resurgence.
There’s a problem, though. Barcola does his best work from the left.
Liverpool already have traffic in that lane. The right, the channel Salah terrorised for years, looks far lighter. And that’s where Warnock believes the recruitment strategy has left a worrying blind spot.
Warnock: ‘It could cost them’
Speaking to TEAMtalk in association with Gambler Media, the former Liverpool defender did not sugarcoat the potential consequences.
“Ultimately, yes, it could cost them,” he said, when asked if failing to sign a direct right-sided replacement might come back to bite the club.
The question, in his eyes, is whether such a player even exists.
“Was there an adequate replacement that they thought could replicate what Salah was doing? I don’t think there is an adequate replacement because what Salah did was phenomenal.”
Liverpool’s ownership group, FSG, stuck to their long-held principles. They set valuations and refused to be dragged into bidding wars they felt made no sense. That approach shaped their late, slightly jarring move for Ismaila Sarr and their pursuit of Yankuba Minteh.
“I found it quite strange that they decided to go in for Ismaila Sarr so late in the transfer window, with his age and his price,” Warnock admitted. He could understand, though, why the move never escalated, pointing to Crystal Palace’s stance and the forward’s age as key factors.
Minteh, seven years younger than Sarr at 22 and viewed as a higher-ceiling prospect, sits in a different category. Liverpool had two bids rejected and then stepped back, but the door has not been slammed shut.
“Yankuba Minteh is an interesting one because you wonder whether they’d have really pushed for that move had he been fully fit,” Warnock said.
That line cuts to the heart of Liverpool’s planning – or lack of it – for life after Salah.
Planning gap leaves Warnock ‘incredulous’
Liverpool knew this day was coming. Salah’s departure was not a curveball, and Warnock cannot understand how the club have allowed themselves to arrive at this point without a clear heir in place.
“The funny thing is that they have known for so long about Salah leaving, but they still haven’t found a replacement,” he said. “I always think you should be looking two or three seasons ahead; with injuries, dips in form, you’ve always got to be thinking about who is next in line.
“I just feel like Liverpool haven’t rectified that situation, and I find it absolutely incredible to be honest.”
The January window looms as a potential second chance.
“I think they possibly will go back in for Minteh in January, but there might be someone else who pops up on the radar between now and then…”
That “someone else” might be the kind of profile Liverpool have already allowed to slip away.
The £62.5m what-if: Semenyo and the Diomande debate
Barcola’s arrival closed a near year-long chase for the former PSG man, but he was not the original dream signing. Liverpool had tracked Antoine Semenyo in January, only to see Manchester City step in and seal a £62.5m deal. They also spent the early weeks of the summer pushing for Yan Diomande.
Warnock cannot shake the feeling that Semenyo, in particular, should be wearing red rather than blue.
“I found it really strange at the time that they didn’t buy Semenyo,” he said.
“For the price he was at, and yes, it was inflated, but he’s a proven Premier League player, an absolute powerhouse who scores goals, reliable, durable – he just ticks every single box.”
Semenyo has hit the ground running at City far quicker than Warnock anticipated.
“I didn’t think he’d do what he’s done at Man City so quickly; I thought it would have taken him some time to settle in, but I think Liverpool really missed out on one there.”
That miss sharpens the focus on what Liverpool do next. Minteh remains an option, but his own body will dictate how viable that move becomes.
“I can see them going back in for Minteh, but it really depends on his form between now and January once he gets himself back fit, but it’s going to be very difficult as that is such a short window.”
As for Diomande, the numbers never quite added up for Warnock.
“Yan Diomande was one they also wanted, but having seen him at the World Cup, I’m not entirely sure he’d be the right fit for £100 million,” he said. “I think £50-60 million would have been a realistic value for him, but everyone works on potential now and thinks about what they might be capable of in 10 years’ time.”
Barcola’s burden
All of this leaves Barcola in an intriguing position. He is not Salah’s clone, not a natural right-sided replacement, and not even the first name Liverpool chased when they began reshaping their attack. Yet he is the one who has arrived for a colossal fee, the one who will be judged against Salah’s numbers and influence.
Jamie Carragher’s 14-word tweet about the Frenchman went viral and sparked plenty of laughter among Liverpool fans, a rare moment of levity amid the serious business of remodelling an attack.
The jokes will fade. The scrutiny will not. Liverpool have bet big on a left-sided star and passed on a £62.5m Premier League powerhouse, all while leaving the right flank without a clear successor to one of the greatest forwards in their history.
If this gamble backfires, the replays won’t just show missed chances on the pitch. They’ll keep looping back to a summer window full of near-misses, hard lines on valuations, and one glaring, Salah-shaped hole on the team sheet.
