Liverpool went into the summer needing to replace Mohamed Salah on the right. They confirmed Barcola in a £123m deal from Paris Saint-Germain on 29 August 2026, an outlay matched by only a small handful of signings in the club’s history. The gap on the right is still there.

Barcola, like Cody Gakpo and academy pick Rio Ngumoha, is a left-sided player. According to TEAMtalk’s Farrell Keeling, Victor Munoz is the only natural fit for the right flank in Liverpool’s current squad, which has left Olise at the top of the follow-up list.

“Victor Munoz looks well-suited to the position, but the likes of Rio Ngumoha, Cody Gakpo and new boy Barcola are all naturally predisposed to playing on the left flank,” Keeling wrote.

Salah himself left Anfield at the end of the 2025/26 season, freed from the final year of his contract. The right wing has been a work in progress ever since.

Read also: Crystal Palace’s bold call: Sage names Europe above the league in the season’s priorities

Bayern want Olise tied to 2032

Bayern have read the room. The club intend to open negotiations over an extension through to 2032, a three-year addition to a deal that currently runs to 2029, and place the 24-year-old alongside Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala in the top earner bracket at the Allianz Arena.

The salary figure reported is around €25m a season, which Sportbible converts to roughly £21m a year, alongside a release-clause demand of £170m from Olise’s camp. Onefootball’s coverage of the same German reporting puts the release-clause figure at €200m, close to the same number in euros rather than pounds.

Olise’s current Bayern deal is the first professional contract of his career without a release clause, and his representatives are expected to insist one is written in this time.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told Sportbible that an offer was overdue.

Read also: Xavi reveals what he told Netherlands players at half-time with side 2-0 down

“At some point, the club will have to sit down with him and present a suitable offer.”

Kane, Olise’s teammate since the Frenchman’s move from Crystal Palace, praised the forward in the same outlet.

“He has made an incredible start to the season… he has raised his level significantly once again.”

Olise would rather play in Spain

The complication for both sides is Olise’s own preference. He would reportedly rather hold out for Real Madrid or Barcelona than return to the Premier League, with Arsenal and Manchester City also monitoring the situation.

Read also: Materazzi on Italy’s 2006 World Cup win: ‘We were playing against aliens in the final’

If Bayern cannot close talks, their contingency plan is already drawn up. According to onefootball, Florian Wirtz, the 23-year-old currently in Liverpool’s own forward line, is Bayern’s priority backup target.

Read also: Albon on 2027 F1: Agressive driving will be rewarded