It now seems just a matter of when Bradley Barcola will be officially confirmed as a Liverpool player rather than if.
As reported by David Ornstein on Thursday morning, the Reds have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ with Paris Saint-Germain to sign the winger, with the two clubs understood to have agreed on a deal worth around £120m overall.
Fabrizio Romano subsequently gave the proposed transfer the ‘here we go‘ treatment, with documents set to be exchanged over the next 24 hours as the formalities of the transaction are carried out.
Assuming there are no late hitches to scupper the deal, Liverpool fans can look forward to seeing Barcola being officially announced as a Red in the coming days, and his name will likely adorn thousands of replica shirts once the transfer is completed.
The accompanying shirt number will also be eagerly anticipated, and while numerous options will be available to the Frenchman, there are two in particular which seem to stand out.
What shirt numbers could Barcola potentially wear at Liverpool?
The winger wears number 29 at PSG, and that shirt is currently free at Anfield, having last been worn by Arthur Melo (for one solitary appearance) four years ago. Prior to that, its most recent occupant was Dominic Solanke in the late 2010s, while Fabio Borini had it between 2012 and 2015.
Barcola will be hoping to leave a greater Liverpool legacy than that trio, none of whom became first-team regulars, but it couldn’t be more different for the other number which might seem a logical choice.
The lowest shirt number currently vacant at Anfield is 11, which of course was worn with distinction by the legendary Mo Salah for the past nine years.
The prospective new Reds signing might wish to take it on and accept the challenge of succeeding his illustrious predecessor, or alternatively he might wish to avoid it so that he isn’t burdened by obvious comparisons to the Egyptian King.
Barcola wore number 12 for France at the World Cup this summer, but that’s currently assigned to Conor Bradley at Liverpool. Numbers 13, 16 and 17 are the next-lowest which are vacant, followed by 24, 26, 27 and 28.
We first need to wait for his proposed transfer to be officially completed, but once that’s done, fans can then look forward to seeing which number the Frenchman will adorn at Anfield, in the hope that it’ll become as legendary as ‘Van Dijk 4’ or ‘Salah 11’.
The word I would use for this Barcola purchase is ‘precious.’…what we did not need is another £100m plus purchase in a position that was not even replacing our best talisman player Mo Salah/guess what he is a right winger/ok so you have decided in that position to go with Munoz/Ngumoha (Rio was less than convincing playig there!). What we needed to spend that sort of money on and have needed for three seasons now is a true holding number 6…now Newcastle proved this pivot stance did not work/and if that was a problem and it was the whole game (mind you Newcastle this season are not a top 4 team) why was Trey Nyoni not brought on/so from that I deduce that Iraola does not view Nyoni as the solution for not buying a six…I do not believe that Barcola is worth the money…I will stand corrected if his performances prove me wrong. I look at the end of this transfer window with trepidation in respect to Hughes et al’s efforts in strengthening our squad. YNWA.
Rio and munoz on the right while barcola and gakpo on the left and try and sign orozco, it is okay like but january try sign rayan,alex scott,quansah,bring ndukwe,martinez,josh abe,mor talla ndiaye
I don’t think Rio on the right is going to work. Makes me think even more so that Gokpo will leave. Barcola & Rio on the left, Muñoz & potential panic buy on the right…
Rio and Barcola On The Left Then munoz and Minteh or sarr on The Right