Liverpool's Search for Salah's Successor: The Price of Barcola
Liverpool know the cost of replacing a legend was always going to be painful. Michael Owen thinks PSG are about to prove just how painful.
Mohamed Salah has gone. Not to Saudi Arabia, not to another European giant, but to Trabzonspor on a free transfer. Nine years, 257 goals, 123 assists, two Premier League titles and a Champions League, gone without a fee. The hole in Liverpool’s attack is enormous, and everyone in Europe can see it.
PSG certainly can. And, according to Owen, they are ready to name their price.
Liverpool’s scramble meets PSG’s stance
With the transfer deadline looming, Liverpool are hunting for a new winger to anchor the right side of their front line. Names like Yan Diomande and Ibrahim Mbaye have been floated, but one target has moved to the front of the queue: 23-year-old French forward Barcola.
He is the priority. PSG know it. Liverpool know it. The number attached to his name underlines it.
A £145 million valuation.
Speaking to the ECHO, Owen did not bother to hide his disbelief at the figures being mentioned for a player who has yet to play a minute in the Premier League. The former Liverpool striker believes PSG are leaning hard into Liverpool’s desperation to replace Salah quickly and decisively.
“That sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? For someone that’s not proven in the Premier League,” he said, calling the fee “eye-watering” and questioning how far Liverpool can realistically go before they simply walk away.
The message was clear: PSG are in no rush to sell, and if Liverpool want Barcola, they will have to pay a premium that borders on the outrageous.
Missed Bowen move and a shrinking market
Owen revealed he had long seen a different solution. Months ago, he publicly backed a move for Jared Bowen from West Ham as the most logical Salah successor. Premier League proven, relentless work rate, goals, assists, a familiar profile for Liverpool’s system. In his eyes, it made perfect sense.
That door, though, appears to be closed. West Ham are not selling, or at least not at a price or in a timeframe Liverpool can realistically entertain. So the club have been pushed deeper into a market that knows they are short of options and heavy with cash.
“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,” Owen said, summing up the dynamic in a single line. Clubs smell weakness. The numbers rise.
Right now, £145 million is the figure being floated around Barcola. Whether Liverpool ever get close to it is another matter, but the tone of the negotiation has been set.
Life after Salah: a very different wide department
The scale of the task facing Liverpool’s recruitment team becomes starker when you rewind a few seasons. This was once an attack defined by abundance out wide. Salah on one flank, Sadio Mane on the other, Luis Diaz arriving to add even more threat.
Now? That era feels distant.
“You know, it used to be Salah, and Mane and Diaz,” Owen reflected. “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.”
He is not exaggerating. For nearly a decade, Salah’s numbers distorted the normal expectations of a wide forward. He was not just a winger; he was a guarantee. Goals in every competition, season after season, in every type of game. Take that out of any squad and you do not just create a vacancy. You create a structural problem.
Owen believes Liverpool cannot solve it with a single signing.
“They probably need two. They certainly need one,” he said, underlining the scale of the rebuild on the flanks. That is why the Barcola pursuit feels so loaded. It is not just about one player; it is about how Liverpool reshape their entire attacking profile.
Barcola, the price, and the gamble
Barcola, to Owen’s eye, has the qualities to justify serious investment. Young, talented, already operating at the highest level with PSG. He looks like a player who can grow into a starring role rather than merely plug a gap.
“He seems to be one that’s available, that’s got the quality,” Owen noted. And the noise around the deal suggests Liverpool’s interest is very real. “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.”
That last line cuts to the heart of Liverpool’s dilemma.
How far do you stretch your wage structure, your transfer model, your sense of value, when you are staring at a right flank that used to be owned by one of the greatest forwards in the club’s history?
Do you break the bank for a 23-year-old who has never played in England, simply because the market has boxed you in? Or do you walk away from a fee you consider “extortionate” and risk starting the season underpowered in a position that once defined your success?
Liverpool’s answer to that question will not just shape this window. It could define the next phase of the post-Salah era.
