Alan Shearer has claimed that it’ll be ‘only a matter of time’ before Liverpool address one particular position in the summer transfer window, which opens today.
The Reds will have an enormous void to fill in terms of the right-sided attacking berth after the departure of Mo Salah at the end of the 2025/26 season, with the sporadically-used Federico Chiesa currently the only natural senior option in that role at Anfield.
The Merseysiders continue to be strongly linked with a summer move for RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande, along with Bradley Barcola of Paris Saint-Germain, and the former Newcastle striker has suggested that the addition of a right-sided forward will be Richard Hughes’ priority in the market.
Speaking to Betfair (via Liverpool Echo), Shearer proclaimed: “Liverpool need several players, I think, if they want to compete again at the very top, and certainly in wide positions they’re going to have to strengthen.
“I’m not surprised with who they’re being linked with like Diomande and Barcola. I guess it’s only a matter of time before that would be the position that they announce.”
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Andoni Iraola will surely want multiple signings through the door at Anfield this summer, but if Liverpool were to recruit only one senior player between now and the end of August, it must be a right-sided winger.
As much as we love Chiesa, he’s shown little to suggest that he’d be capable of stepping up to replicate Salah’s impact in L4, so it’s essential that the Reds go big on a top-tier addition who could lock down that position for the long-term.
Either Diomande or Barcola would seem capable of doing so, and the former showed during Ivory Coast’s win over Ecuador at the World Cup that he’s an explosive talent who can give highly-renowned defenders a torrid time.
A right winger must be Liverpool’s priority, but Iraola is also likely to push for a versatile defender who can operate anywhere across the backline, and a dominant natural no.6 who excels at breaking up opposition attacks, thus freeing up Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister to have more of an attacking impact.
It seems like we say it every summer that the Reds are facing into a pivotal transfer window, but after the dreadful 2025/26 campaign and several high-profile exits, that cliché is absolutely true for 2026.
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