Liverpool pivot to Barcola exposes Isak ‘chase’ as extraordinary opportunism
“Let’s be clear, Alexander Isak is the priority,” was the phrase Fabrizio Romano said a variant of four times when revealing Liverpool’s interest in Bradley Barcola on Wednesday evening.
The ‘BIG BOMB’ dropped along with the news that PSG could then target Rodrgyo as his replacement – accompanied by plenty of further “let’s be clear” caveats – and Manchester United’s “contact” with Carlos Baleba’s representatives included an explanation to confirm Liverpool’s pursuit of Isak as nothing more than extraordinary opportunism.
“In case the Alexander Isak deal cannot happen, Bradley Barcola is the dream option… in terms of wingers,” Romano said, essentially confirming that Liverpool don’t really want a striker, they want a guy who happens to be a striker that they feel they can’t miss out on.
It would actually be far neater and more useful if Isak was a left winger, to replace Luis Diaz and balance a forward line leaning to the right as things stand.
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We’re not suggesting Liverpool are making a grave error in prioritising Isak over Barcola or an alternative left winger. A mixture of Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike would do a more than serviceable job on the left while the frankly terrifying combination of Mohamed Salah and Isak pile goals in for fun alongside them.
But this apparently easy pivot to sign a player nothing like Isak as an alternative to the Sweden international should Newcastle not roll over and accept his departure like a good boy, further highlights the baller position Liverpool find themselves in at the end of this transfer window.
They’ve spent well over £250m but will have recouped around £170m of that by the time Darwin Nunez’s sale to Al Hilal is confirmed, and will fall just short of breaking even if they find buyers for Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa.
No further signings will essentially mean Liverpool have spent next-to-nothing for the second season on the bounce while dramatically improving the quality of Arne Slot’s squad. Incredible.
But they will make further signings –  a centre-back and, apparently, either Isak or Barcola – with more than enough funds to do so.
Just as spending £110m+ on a striker not because you need them but for pure FOMO is a madness, so too is the thought of settling for Barcola.
Any sniffiness based on him now being fourth choice for PSG is easily assuaged by the utter brilliance of Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for the best team in Europe, if counter-intuitively not the world, and is something of a nonsense anyway given Barcola played more minutes than any of them in all competitions last term, with more combined goals and assists (39) than all but Dembele (46).
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This is no slight against Gakpo, who we don’t think has been given nearly enough credit for his performances for Liverpool, but we suspect Barcola would be quite the upgrade and would arguably improve Slot’s side to an even greater degree than Isak.
But we concede that Liverpool can’t not sign Isak if the opportunity arises. But being in a position where you can sit back and wait for your dream target to come to you in what is less a chase and more a steaming hot apple pie on a window sill is a quite glorious position to be in, made even more extraordinary by their apparent confidence in a late switch to target an entirely different player in Barcola if Newcastle fail to open the door for their striker.
And Liverpool can not only be safe in the knowledge that through the signing of Barcola (actually, even without him) they will have a squad to start the season as red-hot favourites to retain their Premier League title, but that Isak will join them as champions in the summer of 2026, as surely the only way he stays at Newcastle is through the signing of the improved contract proposal on the table, which includes a release clause to pave the way to Anfield.
While a discussion as to whether this is the greatest-ever transfer window is a fatuous one until we can see the fruits of Richard Hughes’ labour in the coming season, there is certainly a case to be made for Liverpool being in the strongest and most chilled negotiating position of any club in Premier League history.
