PSG and Liverpool make progress on Bradley Barcola, but no agreement yet. €170M asking price vs €115M offer, with one week left.
Still on his way out of PSG, Bradley Barcola hopes his future will become clearer in the coming days. Less than a week before the end of the summer transfer window, PSG and Liverpool have reportedly made progress in their discussions. But they have not yet reached an agreement.
Barcola may want to leave, PSG may want to sell him, and Liverpool may want to get its hands on the winger, but negotiations over the Parisian forward's transfer seem far from over. As of Aug. 26, and even though he no longer appears on the Parisian team sheets, Barcola is still officially a Paris Saint-Germain player.
But this Tuesday, Aug. 25, may have marked an important step forward in the saga. As deadline day approaches (Tuesday, Sept. 1), “Liverpool and PSG are currently holding crucial discussions in order to clarify the situation regarding the envisioned transfer of Bradley Barcola,” reports The Athletic, which adds that these discussions “are considered an important step in defining the way forward regarding a possible transfer of the 23-year-old player, who is determined to join the Merseyside club.”
In France, L’Equipe's Loic Tanzi confirmed Tuesday evening on the set of "L’Equipe de Greg" that they had just “lived through a day that was not decisive, but very important in this matter, since the two clubs spoke to each other again. Tonight, it is not over, but more than ever, Barcola is very close to joining Liverpool.” For his part, Fabrizio Romano is more measured about the decisive nature of Tuesday’s meeting, explaining that the two clubs discuss the matter daily and that there was no major progress, but the Italian journalist remains optimistic about an agreement by Sept. 1.
Not yet used this season by Luis Enrique, who declared at a news conference that “if a player is not smiling, the best thing is to find a solution,” Barcola is at the heart of a burning saga at the end of the summer transfer window. According to The Athletic, the player trained at Lyon is making a move to the Reds his priority, but his entourage assures L’Equipe that he did not ask to leave PSG this summer and simply gave notice that he does not want to extend his contract, which runs until 2028.
In reality, Barcola’s transfer now depends on only one factor: the agreement between PSG and Liverpool on the amount of his transfer. According to The Athletic, PSG initially demanded nearly 170 million euros for its No. 29, while Liverpool would like the deal to come closer to 115 million euros, given the Frenchman’s contractual situation (under contract until 2028 at PSG).
At the very start of the week, L’Equipe explained that the negotiations were advancing bit by bit, million by million. At this rate, it is therefore possible that nothing will be official before Sept. 1. A new offer from the Mersey side, potentially decisive, is however expected by PSG within the next 24 to 48 hours according to ESPN, which adds that the Parisian club has already refused an offer from the Reds of 105 million euros at the start of the month and now demands about 157 million euros.
