Liverpool's Pursuit of Mbaye Stalls Amid Transfer Window Pressure
Liverpool’s search for attacking reinforcements has hit a familiar snag: interest without progress.
The club have looked at Ibrahim Mbaye this summer, but talk of a move gathering pace has been firmly played down. According to The Athletic, senior Liverpool sources insist their exploration of a deal for the Senegal winger “has gone no further”, with suggestions that personal terms are already agreed described as inaccurate.
Bayer Leverkusen are also understood to have explored a move, yet for now Mbaye remains firmly in the “scouted, not signed” category.
Price, priorities and a crowded to‑do list
The need is obvious. Liverpool want at least two forwards before the window shuts, and some inside and outside the club would argue three: two wingers and a central striker to ease the load on Alexander Isak over a long season.
That ambition collides with hard numbers. Paris Saint-Germain are thought to value Mbaye at around £43 million. At the same time, Liverpool are pushing to complete a permanent deal for Bradley Barcola, a move that could climb beyond £120m this summer.
Those figures sharpen the question: how much room is left in the budget for another attacker? If Mbaye is in the £40m–£50m bracket, Liverpool must decide whether that level of outlay on an 18-year-old is compatible with their wider rebuild.
There is a belief around the club that finding a winger with Mbaye’s profile for significantly less will be difficult in the current market. The sense is that the picture will only truly clear once Barcola’s future is resolved.
A winger built for Liverpool’s blueprint
On the pitch, Mbaye looks tailor-made for what Liverpool want from a wide forward.
As Andy Jones outlined in The Athletic, Mbaye leans on acceleration and sharp turning to escape pressure, preferring to glide out of tight spaces rather than engage in physical duels he might lose. When he gets on the ball, his first instinct is to drive forward and create chances, often for others rather than himself.
In a side where the central forward is expected to shoulder the bulk of the goals, that profile matters. Liverpool are hunting facilitators on the flanks: players who can stretch the pitch, commit defenders and feed the No 9.
Mbaye fits that brief. He is young, raw and far from the finished article, but his ceiling is high. In a market where teenage potential commands premium fees, a £40m–£50m investment in a right-sided winger could, in time, look like smart business rather than extravagance.
The risk is obvious. So is the upside. Let him develop elsewhere and Liverpool may end up watching his value double on someone else’s balance sheet.
Decision time
For now, though, this remains a story of interest rather than imminent action. Liverpool have run the rule over Mbaye. They have not advanced talks. They have not agreed terms.
What they do have is a shrinking window. With only 12 days left before the summer market closes, the club must decide whether Mbaye is a luxury or a necessity in an attacking rebuild that still feels incomplete.
