Liverpool’s Salah Succession Plan: €5m Countdown for Right Wing
Liverpool’s summer rebuild has never been about volume. It’s about getting the right pieces, in the right places, at the right time. And on the right flank, time is running out.
Andoni Iraola walks into Anfield knowing one thing above all: he cannot fudge the future of the right wing. Mohamed Salah looks closer to the exit than the romantic late U-turn some supporters clung to. Behind him, the options are thin, the market is brutal, and a long-term target is edging towards Saudi Arabia.
The pressure is on. The clock is ticking.
A Right Wing Stripped Bare
For years, Liverpool’s right-hand side picked itself. Salah, touchline or half-space, goals and chaos. Now it’s a jigsaw with missing pieces.
Federico Chiesa and Jeremie Frimpong sit on the shortlist as potential solutions out wide, but neither represents a settled long-term answer on that flank. Chiesa’s own future at Anfield is already uncertain, his name as likely to be mentioned in exit talk as in tactical plans. Frimpong, more wing-back than winger by trade, offers pace and penetration but not the classic Salah template.
Victor Muñoz can fill in on the right. He has done it. He can do it again. But everyone around the club knows where he truly comes alive: from the left, driving inside, not trying to mimic Salah’s angles from the opposite wing.
So Liverpool head into a defining summer with a glaring issue on the side of the pitch that once felt untouchable. They need a right-sided forward who can score, create, and bend games to his will. They need someone who can live in that space without being swallowed by the comparison.
Francisco Trincão has been on that radar for some time. Now, it’s decision time.
Trincão Tug-of-War: €50m vs €45m
In Portugal, the situation is clear. Sporting CP have set their price. Al-Ahli are trying to drag it down.
According to A Bola, the Saudi club’s pursuit of Trincão is active and serious. Sporting want between €50m and €60m for the 27-year-old. Al-Ahli, whose sporting director is Portuguese executive Rui Pedro Braz, are pushing for a lower figure and have already tested the waters with an opening approach worth €45m, even before putting a formal bid on paper.
Sporting rejected it. Flat.
The Lisbon club are not in the mood to haggle themselves into a discount. Their stance is defined, their valuation firm, and the negotiations – described as slower than Atlético Madrid’s talks for Morten Hjulmand – are expected to be difficult. Al-Ahli have already spent €22m on attacking midfielder Eduard Spertsyan from Krasnodar, but their interest in Trincão has not cooled.
There is, at this moment, roughly €5m between Sporting’s bottom line and Al-Ahli’s opening gambit. That gap is not huge. It is, however, big enough to leave a window of opportunity for anyone prepared to act with conviction.
Anyone like Liverpool.
A Forward Tailor-Made for Iraola?
Iraola’s football is not a copy-and-paste of Jürgen Klopp or Arne Slot. The shape might look familiar, the intensity recognisable, but the demands on his forwards have their own edge.
He wants attackers who can break the last line, stretch defences, and then drift wide to unbalance the structure. Think of the way Eli Junior Kroupi operated in the 2025–26 campaign: constantly on the move, always asking questions of defenders, never easy to pin down.
In the middle, someone like Hugo Ekitike would fit that profile. Alexander Isak, with his range of movement and finishing, would be an even more refined version. But the wings are where Iraola’s nuance really shows. His wide forwards are not just finishers; they are playmakers on the run, expected to create as much as they score.
On paper, Trincão drops into that description almost too neatly.
Last season, the Portugal international produced 13 goals and 18 assists for Sporting. Those are not vanity numbers padded in dead time. They speak to a player who can both finish moves and build them, who sees passes in the final third and has the composure to deliver.
He is left-footed, operating from the right. That alone makes the Salah comparison inevitable. It also makes him one of the closest stylistic fits Liverpool are likely to find in this market without spending stratospheric money on an already established superstar.
Trincão is not Salah. No one is. But in terms of profile – inverted, creative, productive, technically clean – he is about as close to the template as Liverpool can realistically shop for.
One Week to Decide the Future of a Flank
The message from Portugal is stark: if Liverpool want to be in this race, they cannot loiter on the touchline.
A Bola’s update suggests the Saudis are pushing on, even if the negotiations are slower than other deals in Sporting’s summer. The sense is that this saga will not drag on indefinitely. There is talk of Liverpool having only until the end of the week to make their move before the deal tilts decisively towards Al-Ahli.
This is not a window where Liverpool can rely on the market to come back to them. The Premier League’s elite are all chasing similar profiles. Prices are climbing by the day. Every delay invites another club, another bid, another agent’s phone call.
Iraola must soon present a clear picture of what he wants his attack to look like. Who stays. Who goes. Who leads the line. Who owns the flanks. That clarity has to be matched by the club’s willingness to act when the right player becomes available at the right moment.
Trincão sits at the intersection of all those questions. Age, profile, output, tactical fit. The numbers are on the table. The gap between Sporting and Al-Ahli is bridgeable.
The only real unknown now is whether Liverpool are prepared to step in and claim the right wing of their next era, or watch it be signed off to Riyadh while they search again for answers in a market that rarely forgives hesitation.
