Bradley Barcola
Bradley Barcola
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When Mohamed Salah communicated his decision to leave during last season's March international break, it gave Liverpool time and space to properly plan their next move.
Having been top scorer in eight of nine seasons on Merseyside - rising to third in the club's all-time list of marksmen in the process -Anfield officials knew there was to be no quick fix when it came to replacing the iconic Egyptian.
Players of Salah's ilk simply don't grow on trees and as one of the club's greatest-ever performers, there was an acceptance that a new strategy was needed to replace the goals he would no longer be around to score.
In many ways, that blueprint had been initially drawn up in the summer of 2025, when Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and most pointedly Alexander Isak had been brought to the club for a combined fee of £320m.
This was the Salah succession plan in action, even if the aim was that another league title could be added to the honours' list while the No.11 was still part of the setup alongside his new team-mates under Arne Slot.
But after confirmation of his exit had been absorbed, it was eventually decided that Isak, a British-record buy at £125m from Newcastle United, would have to shoulder most of the goalscoring burden in the post-Salah world.
That, though, still meant Liverpool needed a player capable of being a decisive operator on the right wing, the role 257-goal Salah made his own during his wildly successful stay on Merseyside.
And as the summer window opened, sporting director Richard Hughes thought a star-in-the-making had been identified to help belatedly unlock Isak at Anfield.
The only snag was that Liverpool were not alone in thinking Yan Diomande was one of the most gifted young footballers on the planet.
While the Reds indicated to RB Leipzig in June that they were willing to pay as much as £86m for the 19-year-old, the Ivory Coast international was instead swayed by Paris Saint-Germain's interest.
Publicly, Diomande spoke of it not being a facotr in his thinking while he played for Ivory Coast at the World Cup but it was European champions PSG who thought they had won the race.
A more thorough assessment of the right-winger market, in light of Diomande's plans, caused Liverpool to pivot as they stepped up interest in Bradley Barcola at PSG.
The thought process was that a deal might be easier to complete if Diomande moved to Paris himself for a fee north of £100m.
But the sudden emergence of Real Madrid complicated matters.
The thinking was that PSG might only steel their resolve over former Lyon star Barcola if they were unable to sign Diomande, whose rise to prominence in world football has been remarkable in its speed.
Barcola, however, tipped the scales in Liverpool's favour by making it clear he wasn't thinking about a new deal at Parc des Princes and would relish the opportunity to move to the 20-time champions of England. That also ended any tentative interest from Arsenal.
Meanwhile, early talks with Liverpool's recruitment team led Andoni Iraola to assess the merits of Osasuna's Victor Munoz and his £34.5m release clause was triggered around a fortnight after the head coach arrived as Slot's successor.
Liverpool moved swiftly to fend off interest from a host of clubs - most notably Newcastle United - to secure Spain international Munoz for what is, by current standards, a relatively modest sum.
And as PSG continued to add to their frontline by signing Maghnes Akilouche, Ferran Torres and Mika Godts, the prospect of Barcola moving to Merseyside became more realistic by the day.
The Ligue 1 giants initially demanded £140m for a player they didn't want to lose and had been trying to secure a new for, however.
Patience was always needed to strike a deal as enormous and as complicated as the eventual £123m agreement that paved the way for Barcola to clinch his dream move.
But after weeks of drawn-out negotiations and club-to-club talks involving FSG president Mike Gordon and his PSG counterpart, Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khealifi, a breakthrough was finally made last week.
Barcola undoubtedly falls into the category of being a 'marquee signing' and only Isak has cost more in Liverpool's history. But his arrival doesn't immediately mean the Salah-shaped hole on the right side of Liverpool's frontline has disappeared.
What it does do, though, is see Liverpool tweak their gameplan. Alongside Wirz, Barcola will now be tasked as being the chief creator in this Reds system. They are the two players, alongside Ekitike when he returns, who must load the bullets for Isak.
It's a mouthwatering set of options up top and while there is some understandable frustrations at the inability to find a right-sided attacker too, Liverpool's frontline will strike fear into many a team this coming campaign.
Iraola is adamant that wingers in his system must operate on both sides to give his team an unpredictable edge but the idea of playing someone who cost £123m in a role that is not his most comfortable is surely counterproductive.
In that sense, it will be fascinating to see how the likes of Rio Ngumoha, Cody Gakpo and Munoz develop as they learn the ropes on the right side.
Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh, who had been near the top of 'wingers' shortlist all summer, saw two bids rejected for him; the highest of which was £60m. The Gambia international is sidelined with an injury until October but that didn't deter the Seagulls from seeking a massive sum, as is their prerogative.
The final days of the window saw sources hint that a deal could be resurrected for Minteh but when it was decided that Cody Gakpo would not be allowed to move to Manchester City, after talks had taken place over an £85m deal, it was decided that Liverpool would not be returning to the table for the 22-year-old.
Having agree to sign Jeremy Jacquet in January for £60m, adding quality in the wide areas was the summer-long pursuit for Liverpool.
In that sense, it is fair to say they have achieved that with the deal for Barcola, as a two-time Champions League winner and France international who turns 24 today. The same might be said, in time, about Munoz; a player good enough to take a spot in a Spain squad that won the World Cup.
The loan deal for Barcelona's Ronald Araujo provides experienced, international-class cover at centre-back as Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni develop at the respective ages of 21 and 19 and there is further future-proofing of their goalkeeping department with the deal to sign 18-year-old Lucca Brughmans for £30m from Genk, where he will stay for the campaign ahead.
But the choice to not replace Curtis Jones, now of Inter, feels like the biggest roll of the dice from Richard Hughes and the football operations department at Liverpool.
With Iraola favouring a two-man pivot in the engine room, the Basque coach effectively has three senior players vying for those spots in Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Trey Nyoni is a teenager with vast potential and Wataru Endo is a versatile squad option who has barely featured in the Premier League these past two seasons.
In that sense, Liverpool might find their ambitions live or die based on the decision not to sign a midfielder.
For all the excitement around Barcola dovetailing with the likes of Wirtz, Isak and co, it feels like a unnecessary gamble right now.
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