Liverpool have settled the structure of the deal for Bradley Barcola: a guaranteed £106m to Paris Saint-Germain plus up to £17m in performance bonuses, taking the total to £123m, on a five-year contract.
He had already been left out of Luis Enrique’s squad for the 2-2 draw with Rennes, which told everyone in Paris what was coming.
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That leaves the obvious question of when Anfield actually gets to see him.
Not today.
Forest visit Anfield at 12.30pm with the paperwork still being finished, so the first realistic opportunity is Ipswich Town away on Friday 4 September, an 8pm kick-off at Portman Road live on Sky.
The Times says he could make his debut there, and the timing works: the medical clears this weekend, registration follows, and matchday three sits far enough down the line that Andoni Iraola has a full week on the training ground with him first.
He turns 24 on Wednesday, three days before it.
He is a Liverpool player because Mohamed Salah is not.
Salah’s departure in the summer left a hole on the right, and Liverpool have answered it by buying a left winger, which will annoy people who wanted a like-for-like replacement.
There aren’t many elite right-sided forwards on the market, and Barcola has been a Champions League regular in a team that reached the final. Iraola has earmarked him for the left.
The fee makes him the second most expensive signing in the club’s history, behind the £125m paid to Newcastle for Alexander Isak.
Florian Wirtz cost £100m plus £16m from Leverkusen.
That’s three nine-figure forwards in fourteen months, and neither of the first two has justified the outlay yet.
Isak was jeered through ninety minutes at St James’ Park last weekend without landing a punch, and Wirtz came off after 63 minutes to another round of questions about where he fits.
Iraola’s job is not just to get Barcola going.
It’s to make the three of them work together, which is a harder problem than any of the individual ones.
Somebody has to go the other way.
Tottenham and Manchester City are both tracking Cody Gakpo, who scored in the draw at Newcastle, and Liverpool would want at least £80m to let him leave.
Multiple reports have also linked the club with Ismaila Sarr, which would squeeze the forward line further.
Deadline day sorts most of that out.
Friday night in Suffolk is when the £123m part of it starts being judged.
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