Liverpool's Transfer Dilemma: Missing Out on Key Replacements for Salah
Liverpool’s summer business has drawn a sharp warning: they may come to regret walking into the post-Mohamed Salah era without a like-for-like successor on the right – and one missed £62.5m opportunity is already looming large in the background.
Fenway Sports Group sanctioned a huge outlay on Bradley Barcola, landing the Frenchman for a colossal £123m (€140m, $163m) on the penultimate day of the window, just shy of a club-record fee. Barcola arrives with the weight of a daunting brief: help replace the output of Salah, a modern Liverpool icon and now third on the club’s all-time scoring list.
There is a problem, though. Barcola does his best work off the left, the one area of Liverpool’s attack that already feels congested. The right, Salah’s old territory, still looks light.
Liverpool chased options late on. They explored a move for Ismaila Sarr. They had two bids knocked back for Yankuba Minteh. Neither deal landed. For former Reds defender Stephen Warnock, that gap on the right could yet define the season.
“Ultimately, yes, it could cost them,” Warnock told TEAMtalk in association with Gambler Media.
He then cut to the core of the dilemma. How do you replace Salah?
“Was there an adequate replacement that they thought could replicate what Salah was doing? I don’t think there is an adequate replacement because what Salah did was phenomenal.
“Liverpool will have a valuation on players who they are willing to reach, and I found it quite strange that they decided to go in for Ismaila Sarr so late in the transfer window, with his age and his price. However, it is understandable why they didn’t pursue that move too much, probably down to Crystal Palace’s stance on him but also his age.”
Minteh, at 22, sits seven years younger than Sarr and carries the kind of upside clubs now obsess over. Warnock believes Liverpool’s pursuit may have looked very different had the winger been fully fit.
“Yankuba Minteh is an interesting one because you wonder whether they’d have really pushed for that move had he been fully fit,” he said.
Then came the most stinging observation of all: Liverpool saw this coming.
“The funny thing is that they have known for so long about Salah leaving, but they still haven’t found a replacement. I always think you should be looking two or three seasons ahead; with injuries, dips in form, you’ve always got to be thinking about who is next in line.
“I just feel like Liverpool haven’t rectified that situation, and I find it absolutely incredible to be honest. I think they possibly will go back in for Minteh in January, but there might be someone else who pops up on the radar between now and then…”
The £62.5m what-if: Semenyo and the Diomande debate
Barcola’s arrival ended a pursuit that stretched back close to a year and included his stint at PSG, but he was not the original headline target. Liverpool’s recruitment team had tracked Antoine Semenyo in January, only to watch him join Manchester City in a £62.5m (€73m, $84.5m) move. Earlier in the summer they also pushed for Yan Diomande.
Warnock cannot shake the feeling that missing out on Semenyo was a major misstep.
“I found it really strange at the time that they didn’t buy Semenyo,” he said.
“For the price he was at, and yes, it was inflated, but he’s a proven Premier League player, an absolute powerhouse who scores goals, reliable, durable – he just ticks every single box.
“I didn’t think he’d do what he’s done at Man City so quickly; I thought it would have taken him some time to settle in, but I think Liverpool really missed out on one there.”
Minteh, again, sits in the background as a possible January solution, but Warnock highlighted the realities of a winter dash.
“I can see them going back in for Minteh, but it really depends on his form between now and January once he gets himself back fit, but it’s going to be very difficult as that is such a short window.”
On Diomande, Warnock struck a more cautious note over the price Liverpool were quoted.
“Yan Diomande was one they also wanted, but having seen him at the World Cup, I’m not entirely sure he’d be the right fit for £100 million, I think £50-60 million would have been a realistic value for him, but everyone works on potential now and thinks about what they might be capable of in 10 years’ time.”
So Liverpool end the window with Barcola as the marquee arrival, a left-sided star asked to help fill a right-sided legend’s boots, and with key targets wearing Manchester City blue or priced into the future.
As for Barcola himself, Jamie Carragher’s 14-word tweet about the Frenchman went viral and sparked plenty of laughter among Liverpool supporters. The jokes landed. The serious question lingers: when the season bites, will the recruitment calls do the same?
