Empire Of The Kop

‘There will be an agreement…’ – French reporter hints Barcola breakthrough could be imminent

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One trusted French journalist has hinted that Liverpool could be close to striking an agreement with Paris Saint-Germain for the transfer of Bradley Barcola.Personal terms have already been agreed with the 23-year-old, who’s been frozen out of the PSG squad along with fellow Reds-linked winger Ibrahim Mbaye until their respective futures are resolved.The two clubs have yet to agree on a price for the France international, with some outlets claiming that the European champions are holding out for as much as £145m, but one respected source believes that the Merseysiders could strike a deal for significantly less than that.One more written offer could get Barcola deal over the lineFabrice Hawkins has indicated that Liverpool’s ‘next written offer’ for Barcola could be accepted by PSG, with the reporter expecting the eventual price to be in the range of £111m to £128m.He told RMC Sport’s After Foot podcast (via Anfield Sector): “Bradley Barcola wants to join Liverpool. There’s no intention to keep Bradley Barcola.



“Liverpool have made different verbal offers. They’ve made offers since the verbal one, but there hasn’t been a written offer yet because, at this level, I think the next written offer will be the one that gets it done.

“We’ve understood that it would be somewhere between €130m and €150m, but in any case, it won’t be below €120m for Bradley Barcola. Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustLiverpool clearly believe Barcola would be a game-changerIt’s taken several weeks, but it finally seems as though Liverpool are closing in on agreeing a fee with PSG so that Barcola will get his desired move to Anfield.Luis Enrique’s side were always going to dig their heels in and try to either drive the price up or wear down the Reds to the point of walking away, but with the player left in limbo, the Parisian club now seem eager to bring the situation to a head in the final few days of the transfer window.It looks increasingly as though LFC won’t have to pay quite as vertiginous a fee as initially speculated, but an outlay in excess of £110m would still be massive and would place an expectation on the 23-year-old to produce an immediate return on that investment.That wasn’t the case for Florian Wirtz or Alexander Isak after their big-money arrivals last summer, though Barcola would arrive as a two-time Champions League winner who also enjoyed a fine World Cup in recent weeks.His scoring return of 39 goals in 152 appearances for PSG (one goal every 3.89 games) is respectable if not earth-shattering, and Liverpool would likely be expecting an improvement on that for the likely price to be paid for him.Then again, if the Reds are prepared to go above the £110m mark for the Frenchman, they must be thoroughly convinced that he’d be a game-changing success at Anfield.