Liverpool like to get their business done early in the transfer market, but making sweeping changes across June was always going to be unrealistic, with the World Cup disrupting preparations.

They haven't been idle, though. Liverpool have already hijacked Newcastle United's £34.5m move for Victor Munoz, who joins from Osasuna and is tipped for big things, fast and flashy and furious down the wings.

The Premier League was not a happy hunting ground for the Reds last season, who at least salvaged Champions League football after recording a fifth-place finish.

But Arne Slot had to go, and the hope now is that Andoni Iraola's intense and front-footed tactical approach will bear dividends for a Liverpool side in search of their title-challenging ability.

Munoz is talented, but he won't lead the resurgence. Yan Diomande might've, but the Ivory Coast winger has intimated his desire to join Paris Saint-Germain.

Missing out on Diomande is a blow, but he's not the only elite forward on FSG's radar.

World Cup superstar wants to join Liverpool

The chances of Diomande signing for Liverpool by the end of summer might be negligible, but this shouldn't knock Liverpool's transfer plans out of kilter.

While Liverpool have shown that they can pull off statement signings, bagging Newcastle United's Alexander Isak for a British-record £125m fee last year, and now that Mohamed Salah has left the club on a free transfer, sporting director Richard Hughes is going to need to pull a similar trick out of the bag.

Easier said than done, but Liverpool must be emboldened by a World Cup star's interest in taking the job at Anfield.

That's according to the Daily Mail, who reveal that Liverpool are interested in signing Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, with the 23-year-old's future at the Parc des Princes cast into doubt.

This is, of course, common knowledge, but it is interesting to note that France's dynamic attacker is interested in taking the job at Anfield, eager to listen to what suitors such as the Reds and Arsenal have to say.

The Les Bleus star is one of the most exciting wingers in the world, but he doesn't earn the minutes he desires in Luis Enrique's superteam. Still, he could cost Liverpool as much as £116m.

Why Barcola can be Liverpool's next version of Isak

Liverpool made some first-class signings last summer, but it didn't come together under Slot's wing. The Dutchman had worked wonders the year before, and now is the time for precision in the transfer market.

But you don't score 34 goals and supply 28 assists across two seasons for a club of PSG's stature without demonstrating world-class potential, and indeed, analyst and Como scout Ben Mattinson has hailed him as "one of the best left wingers in the world".

Barcola dances when the ball is at his feet. For him, football is an artform, something to be cherished and carried out with grace and elegance. He is also incisive when on his A-game, though it must be said that Barcola needs to deepen his killer instinct in front of goal.

If Iraola can raise his game - as he did with Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth, for example - then Barcola could become the perfect big-money signing that Liverpool perhaps thought they were getting with Isak, a world-class striker who only scored three goals across an injury-hit 2025/26 season.

Isak, 27, will be expected to bounce back, and Barcola would be expected to hit the ground running in a system that will surely be more slick and polished than Liverpool fans watched last year.

He is a versatile and free-flowing forward, and Barcola has shown for club and country that he has the innate ability to produce resounding moments in the danger area. If he can sustain those moments and multiply them, Liverpool will secure a new talisman to rival the likes of Isak.

If France win the World Cup this year, Barcola will have played an instrumental part in that achievement, after back-to-back Champions League triumphs and a rise to prominence in his homeland with the great team of their time.

Barcola is hardly the finished article, but he has the potential to become a superstar at Anfield, and given that he would arrive for a figure eclipsing £100m at a time when Liverpool need a talisman, he could echo the signing of Isak one year ago, hopefully to a more emphatic effect.