Liverpool's Salah Era Ends: Is Rayan the Next Right Wing Star?
Anfield is bracing for a different kind of noise this season. No Jürgen Klopp. No Arne Slot. And, for the first time in nearly a decade, no Mohamed Salah cutting in from the right, curling games to his will.
The 2026/27 campaign begins with Liverpool stripped of one of the defining figures of their modern history and led by a new voice in the dugout. Arne Slot’s reign ended abruptly in May after a deeply underwhelming league defence, just a year on from a title triumph that felt like the start of another era. It wasn’t.
Now the keys have been handed to Andoni Iraola, the coach who turned Bournemouth from relegation candidates into European qualifiers. Liverpool have gambled on his intensity, his structure, his ability to squeeze more from less. But there is one question that dwarfs all others on Merseyside.
Who replaces Salah?
Filling a giant void
Salah’s departure is more than a transfer line. It’s a rupture.
Nine years. 442 games. A scarcely believable 380 goal contributions. Even in a season where he was short of his peak, he still carried Liverpool’s threat week after week, dragging defences around, deciding tight games, forcing opponents to plan entire systems around him.
You don’t replace that with a like-for-like signing. You survive it, then slowly rebuild something new.
Liverpool, though, are not alone in scouring the market for the next great right-sided forward. And one name has surged to the top of the shortlist: Rayan of Bournemouth.
Rayan: Europe’s new obsession
According to reports, Liverpool are one of five European heavyweights circling the 19-year-old Brazilian, who has just half a Premier League season behind him but already looks like a problem for defenders and accountants alike.
Bournemouth signed him from Vasco da Gama in January for an initial £24.7m, with a further £5.6m in add-ons. It looked like a smart, forward-thinking deal at the time. It now looks like a steal.
In only 15 league appearances, Rayan produced five goals and two assists, helping to drive Bournemouth to European qualification for the first time in the club’s history. Not padding numbers in dead rubbers. Affecting real games, in real pressure.
The impact has been loud enough for the continent’s elite to take notice. Liverpool are joined by Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid in tracking the winger, who Bournemouth teammate Marcus Tavernier has already described as a “world-class talent”.
Liverpool, for their part, are said to be taking an active role in the race. A fee of around £60m has been discussed. Bournemouth’s owners are thought to view an offer in the region of £85m as “exceptional value” for a player they only landed six months ago.
For a 19-year-old, those numbers are dizzying. For a club that has just lost Salah, they are the going rate.
The Iraola connection
This isn’t just a case of Liverpool chasing the latest bright thing. There is a thread that ties this pursuit together: Andoni Iraola knows Rayan, and Rayan knows Iraola.
The Brazilian’s surge in the second half of last season came under the Spaniard’s watch. Iraola didn’t just unleash his talent; he sharpened it, demanded more from it, and trusted it in big moments as Bournemouth pushed towards Europe.
Rayan’s reputation is built on his attacking flair – the direct running, the one-on-one ability, the instinctive finishing. But what really struck Iraola was something less glamorous: his willingness to defend.
Speaking in May, the then-Bournemouth boss revealed just how much that side of Rayan’s game meant to him. He recalled watching the teenager go toe-to-toe with Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku, not just surviving but relishing the battle.
“And the other day, watching Rayan one against one against [Jeremy] Doku, accepting, celebrating defensive plays, I was almost crying, because it's what they need,” Iraola told the Daily Echo.
That wasn’t a throwaway line. It was a window into how he sees young attackers. Goals, Iraola insisted, will always come for players like Rayan and Junior Kroupi.
“It’s because I know Rayan is going to score goals all his life, and Junior Kroupi, his finishing is ridiculous. And sometimes training is he scores goals and players basically stop and clap.
“It's like he has talent, it's a natural thing, but they have to make a bigger step in to being more complete, especially without the ball and this.
“And I think they've been much better than I expected, honestly. With Junior, with Rayan, sometimes I was thinking it's going to be difficult to get it right, and but they've done incredible steps to become more complete and to earn also these minutes.”
Those comments now read very differently with Iraola in charge at Anfield and Liverpool hunting for a right-sided forward. He has already done the hard work of demanding defensive discipline from a teenager who was used to being the star. He has already seen how Rayan responds to being pushed.
Reuniting them would give Iraola a familiar reference point on the pitch and Liverpool a player who understands exactly what the new manager wants from that flank.
Can a 19-year-old carry Salah’s shadow?
This is the tension at the heart of Liverpool’s interest. On one hand, Rayan is raw, still learning the league, still finding his rhythm. On the other, he has already shown the courage to take games on, the maturity to track back, and the numbers to justify the hype.
He would not arrive as “the next Salah”. That label is unfair on almost anyone. What he can be is the first Rayan at Anfield: a young, fearless winger growing into a role that has defined Liverpool for nearly a decade.
The club must decide if they are ready to stake a significant portion of their post-Salah rebuild on a teenager who has dazzled for half a season. Bournemouth must decide if one European campaign with their new star is worth more than an enormous profit.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, Iraola knows exactly what he’d be getting.
If Liverpool do move, they won’t just be buying potential. They’ll be buying a player their new manager has already helped turn from a talented prospect into a serious Premier League threat.
The Salah era is over. The right flank at Anfield is up for grabs. Whether Rayan is the one to claim it could define Liverpool’s next chapter.
