Arsenal Set to Challenge Liverpool for £100m Barcola

Arsenal have already thrown one heavyweight punch in this transfer window. Another could be on the way – and this one lands squarely on Liverpool’s jaw.

Fresh from unveiling £75m signing Bruno Guimaraes to a jubilant Emirates crowd on Sunday, the Premier League champions are being strongly backed to hijack Liverpool’s move for PSG winger Bradley Barcola in what would be a £100m-plus raid.

This isn’t idle gossip. It comes with a hint of insider intrigue.

Arsenal moving like champions

Mikel Arteta’s summer has gathered pace quickly. Guimaraes is the headline act so far, prised from Newcastle to become the manager’s third major addition of the window, following the arrivals of highly rated Greek winger Christos Tzolis and French goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

Arsenal had aimed even higher. The club explored a blockbuster move for Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Junior, only to watch the Brazilian commit to a new six-year deal at the Santiago Bernabeu. That setback hasn’t dulled their ambition. If anything, it’s sharpened it.

The champions still want another creative weapon in their frontline. Marcus Rashford’s name continues to swirl around the Emirates in connection with a possible escape route from Manchester United. Juventus talent Kenan Yildiz has also been mentioned. But increasingly, the spotlight is swinging towards Paris.

Bradley Barcola, heavily linked with Liverpool as the heir to Mohamed Salah, is now being talked about in north London with growing seriousness.

Liverpool’s target, Arsenal’s opening

Liverpool have identified the 23-year-old France international as their preferred successor to Salah and are understood to be ready to go to around £100m (€117m / $135m) to get him. PSG, though, are holding out for closer to £128m (€150m / $172m).

Barcola, a two-time Champions League winner with the French giants, has stalled on signing a new contract and is widely expected to leave. On paper, Liverpool remain the frontrunners. They have the need, the money, and a clear role waiting on that right flank.

Yet the door is not shut to Arsenal. Far from it, according to one of their former forwards.

Perry Groves, who wore the shirt in George Graham’s era, has revealed that a source close to the situation believes Barcola would much prefer London to Merseyside – a preference that could tilt the entire race if Arsenal decide to engage.

Asked on talkSPORT whether Barcola would be a better fit at Arsenal or Liverpool, Groves didn’t hesitate to lean towards his old club, even as he insisted he had “no dog in the fight”.

His reasoning cut straight to the heart of where both clubs stand.

‘At the moment you’d say it was Arsenal’

Groves pointed to Liverpool’s period of transition under new boss Andoni Iraola, who is trying to impose his own philosophy while bedding in a raft of new signings. Arsenal, by contrast, look stable, settled and hungry to build on their title win.

“If you were Barcola and you thought, what out of those two sides have got the most chance of winning the Premier League or Champions League, at the moment you’d say it was Arsenal,” Groves argued.

That’s the lure now: not just London, but a London club operating at the very top of the game, with a squad deep enough to compete on multiple fronts and a manager who has already shown he can knit big personalities into a coherent, relentless unit.

Groves suggested that if Arsenal choose to step into the race, initial groundwork with the player’s camp would almost certainly already be in motion. The club, he hinted, cannot afford to keep missing out on the game’s elite wide forwards after the Vinicius disappointment.

“Arsenal have to be in for those sorts of players. That’s the level Arsenal are at now,” he said.

Then came the line that really changes the temperature of the story.

“I’ve got a source that says he [Barcola] wants to live in London. I can’t tell you who, I can’t divulge my sources. I’ve got a source. I’ve got a mole. Barcola wants to live in London.”

For a player of Barcola’s calibre, that kind of preference can be decisive. It doesn’t guarantee anything. But it gives Arsenal a card Liverpool simply don’t hold.

Frimpong: Barcola and Guimaraes would be ‘very good window’

Perry Groves isn’t alone in urging Arsenal to make their move.

Emmanuel Frimpong, another former Arsenal midfielder, has been buoyed by the capture of Guimaraes and wants the club to keep their foot down. Speaking to Ladbrokes, he welcomed the signing but warned that one title cannot be enough for this group.

“They shouldn’t just win it once and be satisfied with that,” he said. “They have to keep on winning it now and dominate just like how Man United and Man City have in the past.”

Frimpong believes the squad is strong but not complete. He highlighted the need for “a couple of wingers and a proper number eight”, arguing that Declan Rice is operating in a role that doesn’t fully suit his natural game. In his view, Arsenal still require a specialist No. 8 alongside the England international.

That’s where Guimaraes fits the puzzle. And that’s where Barcola could elevate it.

“For me, when it comes to realistic signings this summer, with those positions in mind, I feel like Bruno Guimaraes is someone I’d love to see at Arsenal. And also Bradley Barcola… I think he would be very good for Arsenal. Barcola and Bruno Guimaraes would be a very good transfer window for Arsenal.”

Half of that wish list is already in red and white. The other half is being courted hard by Liverpool.

The question now is simple: do Arsenal step into the fight, armed with a title, a project, and the pull of London, or do they watch another elite winger slip away to a rival in a summer that could define the next phase of Arteta’s reign?