Liverpool’s winger rebuild is moving, but not decisively. Andoni Iraola said the club “definitely need to sign a winger”, James Pearce reported an earlier approach for Maghnes Akliouche, and the best read on the race still points to Paris Saint Germain being ahead of Liverpool.
Liverpool's winger plan
Iraola’s comments were blunt enough. “You have to always be open to new options to improve the squad,” he said, before adding: “A winger, for example - we definitely need to sign a winger. But there are other situations that we will have to analyse what the market gives you, what's the cost, how we also see the players we have.”
That fits the shape of Liverpool’s current search. Pearce said they had “certainly had some discussions” and that there had been an approach earlier in the window for the Monaco right winger. He also said Akliouche was “just one of a number of targets being kind of assessed at the minute” and that he would be “a cheaper alternative” to Bradley Barcola at €50m-€60m.
Liverpool’s recent form helps explain why winger is being treated as a priority. They lost 4 of their last 10 competitive matches and won only 3, with an average of 1.4 goals scored across that stretch.
PSG still look better placed
The strongest counter to the Liverpool angle comes from Fabrizio Romano. He said PSG have “an agreement with the player”, that Akliouche wants to go to PSG, and that PSG are in negotiations with Monaco. Romano also made clear the club-to-club deal is “not done yet”, but his reading is still that PSG are working to close it as soon as possible.
So the picture is fairly straightforward. Liverpool have made an early move and are clearly serious about adding a winger, but Akliouche looks more like a live option inside a wider shortlist than a player on the verge of Anfield. PSG still appear to have the cleaner path, and the next bit of business sits with Monaco and Paris Saint Germain rather than Liverpool alone.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →
