It's complete madness, £145m failure could break Liverpool's season | OneFootball

A £145m failure could break Liverpool's season before it's started. Just absolute madness.

Liverpool have three weeks to go before the Premier League season kicks off. We'd say it's a great chance to have a look at Andoni Iraola's first squad as head coach but then, we'd be shocked at this point if the kick-off involves his first squad.

Which is a long-winded way of saying there's lots still to do. Liverpool haven't replaced Mohamed Salah, nor have they actually replaced Ibrahima Konate - the hope with the latter is that Jeremy Jacquet will step up, but that's certainly asking a lot of an unproven 20-year-old.

So at least one major signing is necessary and that's just to get the squad back to where it roughly was when the season ended. Which begs another question: what happens if Liverpool can't get it done?

Their no.1 target is Bradley Barcola, who Anfield Watch exclusively revealed as an option back in April. Though, he was merely viewed as a potential opportunity back then and has since, thanks to Yan Diomande's rejection, catapulted into the top spot.

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The biggest problem with Barcola is that the likes of the Athletic report that Paris Saint-Germain want €180m for him. That's around £145m, meaning the deal would break the English transfer record, set one year ago when Liverpool signed Alexander Isak.

It would actually break it by quite some way, too. The Barcola deal, if PSG get their way, would be the third-biggest deal in history - a lot of money for a player who isn't actually a first-choice starter at his club.

This is to say, again in a long-winded way, that a deal for the winger isn't exactly straightforward and there's every chance that it doesn't happen. Not if PSG stick to their valuation and Liverpool stick to theirs, one that's closer to €100m.

That would be a disaster. Liverpool are running out of time just to sign Barcola, let alone running out of time to fail to sign Barcola, pick a new target and sign them up.

And it's reasonable to assume that any Barcola alternative would be an inferior option and someone who doesn't immediately bring Liverpool back to the squad they had with Salah last season. Again, this would be a disaster.

Liverpool, then, can't afford to fail here. It could break their season before it's even begun.