Arsenal handed Bradley Barcola verdict after £123m transfer with Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher in agreement | OneFootball

Liverpool swooped in for the France international

Bradley Barcola was the player Arsenal “needed to sign” during the summer transfer window.

While Arsenal were hopeful of bolstering their attacking options with a marquee signing, to go alongside Christos Tzolis, ultimately their pursuit of the aforementioned duo ended in failure.

Chelsea swooped in to sign Rogers for £117million and Vinicius Jr signed a new contract at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Barcola had been linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium as an alternative but sealed a £123m switch to Liverpool around 30 hours before the deadline, a deal that Wright believes Arsenal could end up regretting.

“Now he’s coming into a Liverpool side where he is that superstar and will bring them [his teammates] up there.

“That’s what we needed. Whether you think Morgan Rogers could have done that, I would have been happy with that. But Barcola was available.”

Jamie Carragher, meanwhile, was in agreement with Wright, highlighting the drop in quality when comparing Arsenal’s right-hand side to the left.

“I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing,” he added.

“For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz.

“The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start.

“But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?”