Liverpool's Transfer Needs: Iraola's Search for Wingers

Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he’s missing. And he isn’t dressing it up.

Liverpool’s new head coach heads into the start of the season convinced his squad is short in one key area: out wide. The club have already seen a £50m offer for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh knocked back this week and sounded out Paris St-Germain’s Ibrahim Mbaye, but the search for wingers is only just warming up.

PSG’s Bradley Barcola remains the prime target for Liverpool’s recruitment team as they scramble to add genuine wide threats before the window shuts. Iraola would rather this had all been sorted long ago.

“As a manager, this is an easy one for me. I wanted the players for the first day on 13 July – everyone here and all the positions doubled with top-level players,” he admitted when pressed on the club’s transfer work.

He hasn’t got that. Not yet.

“You understand how the competition works, that the market is open and you start the competition. We have to adapt as coaches to this situation.

“I hate these two weeks or these 10 days that we have because there is a lot of uncertainty – but not in Liverpool, everywhere. But we have to adapt.”

The uncertainty comes despite a summer of big movement at Anfield. Since Iraola replaced Arne Slot, Liverpool have pushed through the £34.5m signing of Victor Munoz and brought in Ronald Araujo on loan from Barcelona. Jeremy Jacquet, the highly rated French centre-half, has also arrived from Rennes in a £60m deal, though that transfer was put in place back in January.

Those deals have reshaped the spine. The flanks are another story.

Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate have all departed in a bruising summer of exits, stripping away experience and leadership as well as quality. Curtis Jones is in Italy to complete a £30m move to Inter Milan, another homegrown pillar set to walk out of the dressing room.

So when Iraola is asked what he still needs, his answer is blunt.

“There are certain situations that for me are clear – especially now on the wing because we don't have enough players specific to play in those positions.

“And then in other positions, I think we have to be open-minded in the market to see situations that honestly can improve our team.

“It's not about signing because we need a player here. No, it's about improving the squad. And we have very good players already here, so to improve our very good players, you need like a specific level of player, yes.”

The message is pointed. Liverpool will not fill gaps for the sake of it. Any winger who walks into this squad has to be good enough to raise the ceiling, not just the numbers.

Speaking separately to Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, Iraola doubled down on the promise of late business.

“We will definitely sign some players. Some deals you have to wait until the end. But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1. Because it is true that we are still quite thin.”

This is not a new theme. During Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the USA, Iraola voiced similar concerns about his defensive options. Inside Anfield, there is an acceptance that the final stretch of the window will be frantic. The plan, and the expectation, is for a busy finish.

Amid all that, there is the human side of change. Jones’ move to Inter has hovered over the squad for weeks, and Iraola has been under no illusions about where it was heading.

“With Curtis, you know. I think it's still not official but there is an ongoing situation. I understood with Curtis. I talked to him. I think in the first or second training session we talked.

“I value him a lot as a player. He loved this club – it was very clear since the beginning for me – but I understood that probably the outcome was going to be what it has been at the end.

“I've never hid it - for me Curtis is a very good player. A very, very good player, but I understood straight away when he talked to me about his situation. It was a situation that could happen and it looks like it is going to happen.”

So Liverpool roll towards the new campaign with a new coach, a remodelled back line, a thinning core of familiar faces and a glaring shortage of wingers. The clock is ticking. The question now is not whether Iraola gets reinforcements, but how high Liverpool can aim with the calibre of wide player they manage to drag through the door before 1 September.