Bradley Barcola has just won back-to-back Champions League titles with Paris Saint-Germain. Naturally, you’d expect the explosive French international to be in high demand. Yet he watched both those finals start from the bench, and spent much of the recent World Cup in rotation with Désiré Doué.
Therein lies the paradox of an already decorated young star who can’t seem to get on the pitch when it matters most. Jamie Carragher has already said the quiet part out loud: Liverpool’s real problem is a right winger to replace Mohamed Salah. Barcola plays on the left. Liverpool appear ready to spend a British transfer record on him anyway. Is this good business?
A professional soccer player in a blue jersey with the number 12, celebrating with one finger raised, during a match. A player in a white jersey can be seen in the background.
A professional soccer player in a blue jersey with the number 12, celebrating with one finger raised, during a match. A player in a white jersey can be seen in the background.
Barcola in international action for France at the recent World Cup
It’s worth noting that Barcola’s benching hasn’t been a consistent pattern throughout his time at PSG. He was first choice for much of the season, only losing his place to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the two biggest games of the year. Pragmatists might argue there’s still real value in shopping around the fringes of Europe’s dominant club side, in the same way the discount aisle at Harrods still draws a crowd.
The bigger issue, though, is the apparent mismatch between what Liverpool need and what they’re likely to be getting in Barcola. The clear priority this summer is to replace Mo Salah with a genuine right-sided attacking option, not to add further stock on the left, where Gakpo, Ngumoha and Muñoz are already competing for minutes. Jamie Carragher summed up his own reservations on the deal:
“But if you’re saying to me, do I want Barcola to come and Liverpool are going to sign a right winger as well? I’ll be absolutely delighted because players would have to move on. Of course they would. But right now, I felt this summer would be about replacing Mo Salah. Barcola doesn’t replace Mo Salah.”
Profiling Bradley Barcola
Barcola was born in Villeurbanne, just outside Lyon, to a French mother and Togolese father, and started organised football at six with local side AS Buers before Lyon’s academy picked him up two years later. He spent a decade coming through the Lyon system, breaking into the first team in 2021 and delivering a breakout 2022-23 season, 31 appearances, 7 goals, 11 assists, that earned him a Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year nomination and, soon after, a €45m move to PSG. On the pitch, he’s built around genuine pace and directness: a left-footed winger just as comfortable cutting inside as running the outside channel, with the physical strength to hold off defenders in transition and an end product that’s improved steadily each season, 37 goals and 43 assists across 159 appearances for PSG heading into this transfer saga. Football runs in the family: his older brother, Malcolm, is a goalkeeper who plays internationally for Togo, while Bradley committed to France at senior level.
A football player in a red jersey celebrates joyfully on the field, with one hand covering his mouth and the other gesturing excitedly to the crowd.
A football player in a red jersey celebrates joyfully on the field, with one hand covering his mouth and the other gesturing excitedly to the crowd.
Will Barcola’s arrival hinder the development of academy star Rio Ngumoha?
Another important question is what happens to breakout star Rio Ngumoha. Signing a £145m left winger to play over him is hardly neutral squad building, it’s a direct statement about Liverpool’s short-term trust in their own pipeline. We recently covered the same tension at Manchester City’s academy; do Liverpool really want to follow that same path? Signing Barcola doesn’t necessarily have to force Ngumoha out the door, but it hardly sends the best message to their other fledgling prospects.
None of this means Barcola is a bad player, or even a bad signing in isolation, a back-to-back Champions League winner still in his early twenties will always find takers. But “good player” and “right move” aren’t the same question, and Liverpool’s summer has been built around answering one very specific problem: who replaces Mo Salah. Barcola doesn’t. Whether that turns out to matter will depend on what Liverpool do next. If a genuine right-sided signing follows, this becomes a smart piece of squad-building rather than a distraction from it. Right now, though, it looks like a club spending a record fee to solve a problem they don’t have, while the one they do have still waits for an answer.
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