Liverpool's Transfer Window: Gakpo, Barcola, and Minteh Updates
Liverpool’s transfer window was always going to be defined out wide. Lose Mohamed Salah for nothing and you don’t just lose goals – you lose gravity. The kind that bends an entire attack around one man. That void is still there.
Victor Muñoz’s arrival from Osasuna, via a triggered £34m release clause, is a start. A World Cup winner through the door, one-on-one quality added, box ticked on paper. But Liverpool know this is only the first piece. The rebuild on the flanks is nowhere near finished.
Liverpool push for Barcola and Minteh
The plan is bold: at least two more wide forwards. The club’s recruitment team has zeroed in on Bradley Barcola as the priority target ever since Yan Diomande slipped away. Barcola is the one they want.
Paris Saint-Germain, though, are making that desire hurt. Their opening stance is brutal: a price starting at £145m for the 23-year-old before they even entertain a sale. No discounts. No favours.
While those talks simmer, Liverpool have moved on a second front. This week, the Premier League champions for 2024/25 opened negotiations for Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh. Two bids have already gone in for the 22-year-old Gambian: first £50m, then £60m.
Brighton’s response has been just as clear as PSG’s. They will not let the left-footer go until an offer hits £70m. No wriggle room suggested. If Liverpool want Minteh, they will have to go higher.
At those numbers, something has to give. To fund both Barcola and Minteh, Liverpool will almost certainly need to sell.
Gakpo emerges as the sacrifice
Cody Gakpo’s name keeps circling around one destination: Tottenham. The Dutchman, on £250,000 per week at Anfield, is increasingly being viewed as the asset who can unlock the rest of Liverpool’s winger business.
A fee of around £72m has been floated for the 27-year-old. For Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi, Gakpo is not a panic move or a short-term fix. He has been a long-term target, a key part of a near-total rebuild of Tottenham’s frontline.
The shape of that new attack is already forming. Manchester City pair Savinho and Omar Marmoush are set to line up for Spurs this season. Gakpo is being lined up as the final piece of De Zerbi’s wide-forward puzzle.
Transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano now suggests the move is close – very close.
“Tottenham are working on it”
Speaking to his YouTube audience, Romano laid out the picture at Spurs.
“Don’t forget Cody Gakpo, because Savinho is going to Tottenham in London for medical tests and contract signing,” he said.
“Omar Marmoush is expected to go to Tottenham as a centre striker, and he’s a target that is probably going to happen in the next days, as I told you.
“But I told you always: right winger, left winger, centre striker. This was what I told you about Tottenham. And for the left winger, the name remains Cody Gakpo.
“Tottenham are working on it. Tottenham are working on the player side. Player terms are not an issue. And then Tottenham remain absolutely on it on the club side with Liverpool.
“So, Gakpo to Tottenham could be over in the next days if the total deal can be agreed.”
The message is blunt: the player is open, the personal terms are under control, and the talks between clubs are active. All that’s missing is final agreement on the overall package.
From title high to uncertain future
Gakpo joined Liverpool from PSV in January 2023 and played a major part in the club’s 204/25 Premier League title-winning campaign. He looked like a long-term fixture, a versatile forward who could slot across the front line and still deliver.
Last season, the picture changed. Performances dipped, criticism grew, and sections of the fanbase began calling for an upgrade in his position. When a squad is being reshaped and big-money wingers are being chased, that kind of narrative matters.
If Liverpool land Barcola, his natural fit on the left would eat directly into Gakpo’s territory. Andoni Iraola already has Rio Ngumoha and Muñoz as options for that side as well. The competition is stacking up, and the logic of a sale becomes harder to ignore.
Liverpool want one-v-one specialists, line-breakers, wide threats who can beat a man and tilt games. Tottenham want Gakpo as the final stroke in De Zerbi’s attacking redesign.
If the numbers line up in the coming days, one move could unlock an entire chain of transfers at both clubs – and redraw the map of the Premier League’s wide men for the seasons ahead.
