Liverpool's Transfer Focus: Barcola Over Mbaye in Late Window

Liverpool’s search for a new wide forward has taken them deep into Ligue 1, but the picture around PSG prospect Mbaye is far less advanced than it first looked.

French journalist Romain Molina has poured cold water on talk of a full-scale double swoop on Paris, making it clear that while Liverpool like Mbaye, they are not building their window around him.

“Truthfully, Mbaye is on Liverpool’s shortlist but not as the No. 1 choice,” Molina said, outlining a hierarchy in which the PSG youngster sits behind other attacking targets as the clock ticks down on the summer window.

The dynamic around the deal is complicated. Not so much by Liverpool, but by the presence of super-agent Jorge Mendes. Molina underlined that Mbaye’s next move could hinge more on Mendes’ late-window manoeuvres than on any single club’s obsession with the player.

“Mendes knows very well that at the end of the transfer window there will be something for Mbaye, so he will use the clubs where he has the most influence to make things move,” Molina explained. The message is clear: Mendes will test every door he can push, and Liverpool are just one of several.

While Mbaye’s situation drifts in that agent-driven grey area, the picture is sharper with his PSG teammate Barcola. Liverpool are understood to be putting more energy into a deal for Barcola, whose camp operates in a very different way.

Here, Mendes is not the central figure. His influence around Anfield is not the key lever, especially with PSG holding out for big money. “That’s not where he’s most influential, especially with the price currently being asked by Paris Saint-Germain,” Molina noted.

The contrast with Barcola’s representative, Moussa Sissoko, is stark. Molina drew a line between the two approaches: “That’s where you see the difference between the two agents. For Mendes it’s not so much the player’s wishes that count, it’s where he has connections with the executives to make things move how he wants. With [Sissoko] it’s the opposite. Even if it means clashing with clubs, even if it means going hard. He wants to go to war for his players."

So while Mendes plays the long game, Sissoko pushes hard in the open. Liverpool, weighing up huge fees and the balance of their squad, are trying to navigate between those worlds.

If Mbaye slips out of reach – whether through PSG’s valuation or his lower standing on Liverpool’s list – the club are not short of alternatives. Their recruitment team have already lined up a string of options across Europe.

• Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh is being monitored.
• So is Lille’s Matias Fernandez-Pardo.
• Bournemouth’s Rayan has also been flagged as a potential solution for the wide roles Jürgen Klopp’s successor wants to refresh.

Another name gaining traction is Köln forward Said El Mala. Comfortable on either wing or through the middle, El Mala had been strongly linked with Borussia Dortmund earlier in the window. That path now appears to have closed.

Reports in Germany suggest Dortmund have stepped away, leaving his reported €50m (£42.7m) release clause untouched. If Liverpool choose to act, the route is clear: pay the clause and bring him to Anfield.

All of this unfolds against a hard financial backdrop. A double raid on PSG for Mbaye and Barcola would be headline-grabbing, but the numbers are brutal. The French champions are expected to demand more than £150m combined for the two youngsters.

Molina’s assessment is that while Mbaye remains in the frame, the scale of the investment required may push Liverpool towards a different, currently unnamed, attacking target. The strategy is flexible, the shortlist is long, and the deadline is closing in fast.

Liverpool know they need one more decisive move in the market. The question now is whether it comes from Paris, the Bundesliga, or a late, left-field name that changes the shape of their front line for the season ahead.