Liverpool's Aggressive Rebuild After Salah: New Signings Munoz and Diomande

Liverpool have not waited long to show how serious life after Mohamed Salah is going to be.

Barely have they wrapped up a £34.5m deal for Osasuna winger Victor Munoz than they have planted a marker down on the other side of Europe, signalling a willingness to pay £86m for RB Leipzig’s teenage phenomenon Yan Diomande.

Two wingers. Two big fees. One clear message: this rebuild will be aggressive.

Liverpool raid Newcastle’s target list

Munoz’s move is a story Newcastle know only too well.

They thought they had him. A £33.3m package agreed with Osasuna – £29m up front, £4.3m in add-ons. Personal terms sorted. The 22-year-old had told them he wanted to come. Agent fees lined up. A medical in the United States already being arranged.

Then everything slowed.

In the last 24 hours before the deal was expected to be completed, Newcastle were told by the player’s camp to wait. Liverpool, who had been in the conversation all along, stepped through the gap.

By the time the dust settled, Munoz had signed a six-year contract at Anfield. Newcastle, stung in the market by Liverpool before with Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, were left trying to piece together how a deal that looked done had slipped away again.

Munoz: flexible, fast, and Iraola-approved

Liverpool’s move for Munoz was not a consolation prize. He fits a very specific brief.

They wanted more flexibility in the forward line. Munoz brings it. Predominantly used off the left, he can switch to the right or operate through the middle. He is direct, quick and happy to run at defenders – exactly the sort of profile Liverpool targeted to inject more pace into an attack that at times felt one-dimensional last season.

Inside the club, his versatility is seen as a structural advantage. Andoni Iraola inherits a squad that creaked when injuries hit; Munoz gives him cover across multiple positions, raises competition for places and, crucially, is not expected to block the pathway of highly rated youngster Rio Ngumoha.

The new head coach knows the player well. Liverpool’s interest sharpened once Iraola arrived, drawing on his extensive knowledge of LaLiga. Munoz, currently at the World Cup with Spain, completed his medical in the United States with Liverpool’s staff.

His route to Anfield has been quietly elite. Youth spells at Barcelona and Real Madrid. A LaLiga debut for Madrid in May 2025, sent on by Carlo Ancelotti as a substitute for Vinicius Junior in El Clásico against Barca. A five-year contract at Osasuna followed that summer, 34 league appearances last season, six goals and two assists.

Now, six years at Liverpool lie ahead.

Diomande: the £86m statement Liverpool are ready to make

Munoz’s arrival does not close the door on Diomande. It barely nudges it.

Liverpool still see the 19-year-old Leipzig winger as their top wide target this summer, part of a multi-signing plan to replace Salah’s goals, creativity and gravity on the pitch. Their willingness to go to £86m underlines just how highly they rate him.

That figure would smash the Premier League record fee for a teenager, eclipsing the £58.9m Manchester United agreed to pay Lille for Leny Yoro in the summer of 2024. It is a level that drags any transfer into the spotlight, and into a fight with Europe’s elite.

Leipzig, though, are in no rush to cash in. According to reports in Germany, they want significantly more than Liverpool’s indicated ceiling. The Bundesliga club would prefer to keep Diomande for at least another season and are ready to offer a new contract with a rise on his current wage of around £33,000 per week.

They paid £17.3m to sign him from Leganes last summer. That already looks like one of the smartest pieces of business in Europe.

From Leganes struggler to Leipzig superstar

Diomande’s rise has been dizzying.

This time last year, his senior career amounted to six starts for Leganes at the back end of a relegation season from LaLiga. He scored in two of those games, against Espanyol and Valladolid. Leganes failed to score at all in the other four.

It was still enough for RB Leipzig to gamble €20m on his potential.

They have been richly rewarded. Diomande has exploded in Germany: electric, unpredictable, almost impossible to pin down. He plays at full tilt, with the kind of raw, uncoachable gifts that separate the very best attacking talents – and he has shown a willingness to absorb the tactical detail that refines them.

The result is a winger the biggest clubs in Europe now covet. For everyone else, he is already out of reach.

Paris Saint-Germain are among the heavyweights tracking him this summer. Other leading clubs are circling. The question is not whether Diomande will move for huge money, but when – and to whom.

Liverpool have put their number on the table. Leipzig, for now, are pushing it away.

Chiesa squeezed by the new order

All this movement has clear implications for Federico Chiesa.

The Italy winger’s future was already uncertain after a muted spell under former head coach Arne Slot, who handed him just one Premier League start last season. Iraola is prepared to offer a clean slate and there is a belief inside Liverpool that Chiesa’s skillset suits the Spaniard’s more aggressive, front-foot style better than Slot’s.

The reality on the depth chart looks harsher.

Munoz has arrived, with the likelihood of another signing in Chiesa’s position still high as Liverpool keep pushing for Diomande or an alternative of similar profile. That congestion on the flanks makes it harder to see a clear route to the regular minutes the 28-year-old craves.

Chiesa has two years left on his contract and interest from Italy. He wants to be a first-team regular. At Anfield, as the squad is being reshaped around new wide forwards and a post-Salah identity, that ambition is starting to look like a tight squeeze.

Liverpool, meanwhile, are moving at speed. One winger signed, another in their sights, and a transfer strategy that leaves no doubt: the era after Salah will not be built cautiously, or quietly.