Liverpool are reportedly hoping to sign “2-3 more players” ahead of the transfer window deadline.
Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reports on X (formerly Twitter) that Bradley Barcola and Yankuba Minteh are the club’s “top priorities”.
The Merseysiders have already seen two bids for the Gambian rejected by Brighton & Hove Albion.
Liverpool hoping to land both Bradley Barcola and Yankuba Minteh
It should be clear to all now after watching the Reds’ opening draw against Newcastle United at St James’ Park that further reinforcements are essential.
The Rio Ngumoha project at right wing shouldn’t (and probably won’t) be abandoned, given Andoni Iraola’s preference for positionally versatile wingers.
🚨👀 Liverpool are planning to sign 2-3 more players before Deadline Day.
Bradley Barcola and Yankuba Minteh remain the top priorities for Liverpool at this stage. #LFC
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) August 24, 2026
However, the former Chelsea starlet’s apparent struggles indicate that Liverpool would be well-advised to pursue a more naturally right-sided attacker to alleviate some of the pressure on the 17-year-old while he adapts to the position.
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Meanwhile, the addition of Bradley Barcola would inject some much-needed elite-level quality into the forward line.
Who could Liverpool’s sixth signing be?
Andoni Iraola’s insistence that Liverpool’s struggles in midfield aren’t solely down to a lack of the right personnel – coupled with the club’s briefing that a natural holding six isn’t deemed necessary at this time – means that we’re unlikely to bolster the midfield department this summer.
In that case, it seems that the position most likely to be strengthened will be centre-forward, with the Reds looking to overhaul the forward line following Mo Salah’s early exit.
This would, technically speaking, leave Liverpool with enough in the way of options across the front three once Hugo Ekitike returns from injury:
- Cody Gakpo
- Bradley Barcola
- Alexander Isak
- Hugo Ekitike
- Rio Ngumoha
- Victor Munoz
- Yankuba Minteh
- [A third potential offensive signing]
Earlier in August, it was suggested that Newcastle’s out-of-favour frontman Nick Woltemade could be an option we might consider, with the Magpies allegedly open to a loan move.
A deal of this variety would most likely be of value to Iraola’s outfit, given it wouldn’t leave us with the problem of having to spread minutes across three strikers.
However, this particular link seems to have gone rather quiet of late, so it remains to be seen how exactly Liverpool’s recruitment team plans to navigate the next few months of Ekitike’s recovery.
Why are LFC pursuing Minteh for £65-70m who is injured out for 3 months when that money could be spent on Mbaye who could play right away.plus he is 4yrs younger
My feelings exactly. Also why didn’t we pursue Rayan more vigorously instead of chasing shadows with Barcola.
Ryans release clause comes only in effect 2027
Agreed..I personally think we LFC could have have pursued both Rayan and Minteh with that Barcola money by now we should have had both a defensive mid and a forward my opinion
Couldn’t agree more
Agreed, makes a lot more sense. Why spend that amount of money and wait for him to recover and then getting him fit enough for our new style of play when our priorities are now
when barcola & mbaye or minteh signed, then go for depensive midfielder and that’s either kaishu sano of mainz or man city’s gonzalez
we better use munoz at the right flank than this worse decision to add this flop into the squards. if they can’t sign mbaye, that amount can afford to sign a very good no6 like kaishu sano of mainz or even gonzalez of man city.
He needs to constraint on the defense too
Why is Liverpool pursuing forwards when the problem is still defence and maybe midfield don’t want a season like last year .
Psg.just greedy pull out of barcola.interest
You have to be stupid not to address the most important areas we are lacking. Firstly full backs, neither Kerkez or Frimpong (who’s more a wing-back anyway) are up to scratch. Kerkez looked as nervous yesterday as he has all last season, so no way is that going to sort itself out. We need a solid right back. Without that, Virgil will keep getting exposed on the left covering for Kerkez. Then there is no protection in front of the back 4. We have needed a ball winner/def midfield for 2 seasons now, yet after not getting Zubimendi, they haven’t even tried to get someone else, so it’s not like Hughes and co don’t know it’s an issue. We will be lucky to make top 6 as we get exposed again and again.
Barcola would be a good singing alongside Mbaye. If Liverpool can pull off this deal, it would be perfect and the team would be unstoppable. Minteh is a good player too, better than Isak
Anyone is better than Issak .think we bought another Andy Caroll?😜better get his shit together,Ekitike will be sorely missed,this season,a lot of time wasted on Barcola,attempt.Hughes would not inspire no one,
His signings so far have been poor at least,!
if care is not taken this Barcola may end like Isak
Delay could be dangerous even though there are many good players in the market. Let take a bound step on Barcola and Mbaye They could be of help. Thereafter Defensive midfield could as well solve the 3 years problem.
#6 all day long. Need a warrior who thrives on the boring stuff. Shutting the middle down and turning the ball round.
Grav / BossLa are good players, but they arent the wall we need. Dom keeps giving the ball away and Grav tries the flash stuff too iften. they both need to offer up for the short ball.
don’t understand why we are thinking of buying and injured player when we need them to play now no spend the money elsewhere on a player thats ready to go thats if we sign anyone at all get the barcola situation settled before some one else comes in and signs him while we mess about again
All good comments above..I agree we need a good No.6. And RB & LB ,yes I know we have Arujo as cover but Frimpong is not a RB.
Forget minteh….get Barcola/Mbaye…then Wharton from Palace..wasn’t there mention of a Spanish RB a week or so ago ?? Why hasn’t he used Nyoni in midfield ?
Barcola, Wharton, Gonzalez/Lamine Carera, Mbaye/Sarr, Kayode, Hato/Mendes would be a great close.
And no defensive midfielder yet again.
Every team who watched the Newcastle game will, be ready to do the same. Defend deep and hit us on the counter attack.
It’s utterly negligent to not buy a quality defensive midfielder. It’s the biggest weakness in this Liverpool team.
It also doesn’t give me any confidence whatsoever in Iraola when he’s saying there’s nothing wrong with
our midfield.
We are more than vulnerable to the counter attack.
We are wide open and asking for trouble.
It’s clueless from Richard Hughes it’s clueless from Iraola.
We deserve all we get.
If it’s true that Liverpool are going to sign another player. Either sign a DMF. Or a Right back. Plus another Left back, too. We need it.
Richie the Robot needs to get his finger out, and do the job he is paid for. Or scrap his position. And give the authority to Iraola. As it should be anyway.
Yes bro
Barcola and Minteh ??? personally I don’t think Minteh is good enough and Barcola is overpriced at 145 million, maybe Liverpool should use that money and go in for Rayan and Wharton !!!!
Look what happened to the last two big money signings we made last summer none of them look like fulfilling their price tag ,we need a no 6 to protect the defence that was glaringly obvious for Newcastle’s first goal
Before the transfer window opened and before the World Cup had started, I had said these are the players we should be focussing on: –
CB’s – Ordonez/Schlotterbeck/Gabriel
CM’s – Wharton and Scott (Homegrown)
RW’s – Rayan and Mbaye
Hughes is making the COSTLY mistake of going after big names and wasting time.
Would not surprise me if we close this transfer window with not much to show.