Liverpool's Scattergun Salah Search Leaves Them Chasing Three Wingers at Once

Liverpool have had a £34 million bid rejected by Monaco for winger Maghnes Akliouche, putting them in direct competition with Paris Saint-Germain for the France international as they scramble to replace Mohamed Salah FourFourTwo reports. It is the second rejected offer in a matter of days, and it arrives alongside separate reporting that Liverpool are now leading the race for PSG's own winger, Bradley Barcola ESPN's Transfer Talk column states.

Taken together, the two stories do not describe two separate transfer sagas. They describe one interconnected chain reaction across Ligue 1's winger market, with Liverpool caught somewhere in the middle of it rather than dictating terms, the kind of overlapping speculation that keeps the transfer rumour mill turning throughout the summer window.

Liverpool's Rejected Bid: What We Know About the Akliouche Approach

According to FourFourTwo, Liverpool have made an 'initial approach' to Monaco over Akliouche, with Sky Sports News understood to have confirmed the club have 'checked on the potential availability' of the 24-year-old. CaughtOffside corroborates the contact, describing the Frenchman as one of Liverpool's 'leading targets' as they search for attacking reinforcements this summer.

Homegrown Talent With a Firm Price Tag

Akliouche is a product of Monaco's academy, having joined the club's youth ranks nine years ago from the Paris suburbs. He has since made 139 appearances for the first team, scoring 23 goals, and produced a goal or assist every 200 minutes in Ligue 1 last season while operating primarily on the right, the exact position Salah has vacated at Anfield FourFourTwo notes.

He has two years left on his Monaco contract and won his tenth senior France cap after featuring in the 2026 World Cup squad. Crucially for Monaco, this summer is viewed as their best opportunity to cash in on a player they have developed since his early teens, particularly under incoming head coach Filipe Luis, who has succeeded Sebastien Pocognoli.

Why PSG's Failed Bids Matter

PSG have reportedly had a bid as high as £34 million rejected by Monaco, the same figure attributed to Liverpool's approach. That detail matters: it suggests Monaco's valuation is not being inflated specifically to deter one suitor. It is firm regardless of who is asking, which leaves Liverpool with little room to negotiate a discount simply because they sit outside Ligue 1.

The PSG Complication: Why Barcola's Future Is Tied to Monaco's Winger

The Akliouche pursuit cannot be read in isolation from PSG's own business. As reigning back-to-back Champions League winners, PSG can outspend most clubs in Europe, yet they too have been rebuffed by Monaco. That has not stopped them viewing Akliouche as the long-term successor to Barcola, whose own future at the Parc des Princes is now under scrutiny.

Liverpool's Reported Lead for Barcola

ESPN's Transfer Talk reports that Liverpool are 'in the driving seat' to sign Barcola, even as they simultaneously chase Akliouche, the very player PSG hope will replace him. That is an unusual position for Liverpool to occupy: potentially facilitating PSG's succession plan by taking Barcola off their hands, while competing with PSG for the man lined up to fill the gap.

Liverpool are yet to replace Mohamed Salah, but they are reportedly in the driving seat to sign PSG's Bradley Barcola ESPN reports.

Reconciling the two reports, FourFourTwo frames this purely as a straight negotiation with Monaco over Akliouche, while ESPN's Barcola angle widens the picture considerably. Read side by side, they show a club exploring multiple routes to the same problem rather than committing to one deal and pushing it through.

A Pattern Emerging: Diomande, Akliouche, Barcola and Liverpool's Post-Salah Scramble

The Akliouche approach is not Liverpool's first knockback of the summer. Sky Sports reporting cited by FourFourTwo confirms Liverpool were previously interested in RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande, only for Leipzig to demand an estimated £112 million against Liverpool's offer of £86 million. When that gap proved unbridgeable, 'other options, such as Akliouche, are now being explored', according to the same reporting.

Three Wingers, One Fortnight

In the space of roughly two weeks, Liverpool have now been linked with three different Ligue-1-adjacent or Ligue-1-bound wingers:

• Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig), priced out at £112m against an £86m Liverpool offer
• Maghnes Akliouche (Monaco), a £34m bid rejected, PSG also rebuffed
• Bradley Barcola (PSG), where Liverpool are reportedly leading the race per ESPN

That spread of targets, each one linked to the others through PSG's own recruitment planning, points to a club casting a wide net rather than dictating the market from a position of strength.

The Financial Backdrop

Liverpool have already committed significant funds elsewhere this summer, part of a spending pattern examined in more detail in a recent look at the club's wider financial strategy. Spanish winger Victor Munoz arrived from Osasuna for a fee reported to be similar to the amount rejected by Monaco for Akliouche, while French defender Jeremy Jacquet cost around £54 million, arriving to help cover the departures of Ibrahima Konate to Real Madrid and Andrew Robertson to Tottenham Hotspur FourFourTwo details. That outlay likely explains why Liverpool walked away from Diomande's £112m valuation rather than stretching to match it, and why their Akliouche bid landed at a relatively modest £34m rather than a figure designed to force Monaco's hand.

What Happens Next: Valuations, Timelines and Iraola's Options

Monaco's stance looks unlikely to soften quickly. With PSG already rejected at the same £34m level Liverpool have just tested, any deal for Akliouche will almost certainly require a substantially improved package, and Monaco have every incentive to let a bidding war develop between the two Champions League-calibre clubs.

Iraola's Pressing Timeline

New head coach Andoni Iraola is 'desperate' to fill the right-wing gap left by Salah before the season restarts, according to FourFourTwo's reporting, and the longer this drags on across three separate targets, the greater the risk Liverpool enter the campaign short of a like-for-like replacement. Should the Barcola move accelerate, as ESPN suggests, it could theoretically free PSG's hand to go harder for Akliouche, tightening the squeeze on Liverpool from both directions at once.

For now, the clearest takeaway is that Liverpool do not appear to have settled on a single priority target. Whether that changes before deadline day, or whether Iraola is left assembling his attack from whichever domino falls last, is the question this saga will answer in the coming weeks.