Liverpool's Salah Succession Plan: Ibrahim Mbaye Emerges

For the first time since Mohamed Salah walked away from Anfield this summer, Liverpool’s succession plan on the right flank has a name rather than a question mark: Ibrahim Mbaye.

The Egyptian’s departure closed the book on one of the most prolific and influential careers the club has ever seen. Goals, assists, trophies, moments that defined an era – all gone in a single summer. You don’t just “replace” that. You strategise, you gamble, you hope.

What Liverpool haven’t done, though, is sign anyone to actually play on the right wing. The new season is less than three weeks away and that side of the pitch remains a riddle.

The squad sheet underlines the problem. There is Jeremie Frimpong, but he’s a wing-back by trade, not a touchline winger, and with Conor Bradley injured, Frimpong is needed at right-back. Bradley Barcola has been linked and certainly excites, yet he operates on the opposite flank. All the while, the most Salah-like role in the team sits without a natural heir.

So Liverpool head into the final stretch of pre-season without a clear starting right-sided forward. That alone would be alarming. The lack of even a recognised backup makes it worse.

Then, on Tuesday evening, came a jolt of clarity.

Reports emerged that 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye is firmly on Liverpool’s radar, with talks expected to begin imminently. Fabrice Hawkins reported genuine interest from the club, while Fabrizio Romano indicated that the player himself is keen on the move.

This isn’t a short-term plaster. This is the outline of a long-term bet.

Mbaye is not being touted as someone who walks straight into Salah’s boots from day one. At 18, he’s a project, not a finished product. But he’s exactly the type of project Liverpool have so often trusted: young, explosive, and with a ceiling that scouts quietly rave about.

The context matters. The market for right-sided forwards is thin, bordering on desperate. Genuine elite-level options are scarce, prohibitively expensive, or simply unavailable. Clubs know what a modern right-winger with end product is worth; they hold them tight.

That’s why Mbaye stands out. A Senegalese talent with the tools to become a genuine world-beater, he offers something the current market rarely does – upside. Real, elite-level upside.

Liverpool understand this landscape better than most. They know that finding another Salah is close to impossible. What they can do is identify the next player with the potential to reach that kind of influence and give him the environment to grow into it.

Mbaye fits that profile. He may not be ready to shoulder the responsibility from the first whistle of the new campaign, but if Liverpool push ahead, they won’t be buying the present. They’ll be buying the possibility of a future where the right flank once again belongs to a player opponents fear.

For a club staring at a glaring vacancy on one side of their front line, that possibility might be the best chance they get at a true Salah successor. The question now is simple: do Liverpool move quickly enough to turn interest into the signing that reshapes their attack for the next decade?