Michael Owen Warns Liverpool Against Paying Extortionate Fee for Barcola

Michael Owen has warned Liverpool not to let desperation for a Mohamed Salah successor push them into paying what he calls an “extortionate” fee for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola.

Liverpool have turned to Barcola after missing out on Yan Diomande and Michael Olise, with the 21-year-old emerging as a leading candidate to inherit Salah’s right-sided role. Reports in France and England suggest the player is open to the move and has already indicated to PSG that he does not intend to extend his contract beyond 2028.

That, though, is where the simplicity ends.

PSG are said to be holding out for around £145m. Liverpool, for their part, are understood to be willing to go to roughly £100m. The gap is enormous, and Owen believes the Premier League club should be prepared to walk away if the French champions refuse to budge.

“That sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? For someone that’s not proven in the Premier League,” Owen told the Liverpool Echo when asked about the £145m figure being quoted around Barcola.

“Obviously played at the highest level, but, yeah, at some point you’ve got to say no, haven’t you? If it gets to £145m, I mean, wow, that’s eye-watering.”

Owen has long had his own idea of how Liverpool should have handled life after Salah. He previously argued that Jared Bowen would have been the ideal replacement, a ready-made Premier League forward capable of stepping straight into the role.

“I mean, I went on record a couple of months ago saying if I was Liverpool, I’d go and try to get Jared Bowen from West Ham to replace Salah. I thought that made a lot of sense.

“But, obviously, that doesn’t look possible anymore, so they’re going to have to.

“And the problem is everybody knows you’re desperate for a top-class player, so you’re going to have to pay through the nose. That might be just what you have to do.

“But it sounds extortionate, doesn’t it? £145 million, that’s the number that you’re saying.”

The Salah void and a shrinking winger market

Owen’s concern is not just the size of the fee. It is the market Liverpool are walking into. The club once boasted a devastating line of wide forwards: Salah, Sadio Mane, Luis Diaz. Now, with Salah gone and Mane long departed, that depth has evaporated.

“You know, it used to be Salah, and Mane and Diaz,” Owen said. “There’s so many great wide players [at Liverpool] over the years. And it feels like there’s a dearth of them, of course, now at Liverpool.

“They probably need two. They certainly need one.”

That is the crux of Liverpool’s dilemma. Everyone can see the hole on the right. Everyone knows a club of their stature cannot drift into a season without a headline attacking signing. Selling clubs sense that weakness and set their prices accordingly.

So Barcola, a highly rated talent who has already played Champions League football and carries clear upside, becomes both opportunity and trap.

“So, yeah, I mean, they do probably need to invest heavily in that type of position. And he [Barcola] seems to be one that’s available, that’s got the quality. And it sounds like there’s no smoke without fire.

“It sounds like they’d be interested, but a lot will depend on the price, I guess.”

Liverpool now stand at a familiar crossroads in the modern transfer era: pay the premium that comes with need and scarcity, or walk away and risk entering the season without a marquee replacement for one of the greatest forwards in their history.