22 Jul 2026 20:51:04.
During our holiday in the French Riviera, I got chatting to an Uber driver who was a die-hard Lyon supporter. When I told him of Liverpool's interest in signing Bradley Barcola, he became very animated and said it would be very bad business for LFC.
He'd watched Barcola for 4 seasons and said, apart from pace, he was absolutely useless. He couldn't stop laughing when I told him PSG wanted £100M+ for him and we were contemplating paying it. Said we'd be getting robbed paying 40M!
The man knew his footy.
22 Jul 2026 23:20:23
Aye, I reckon he could teach Deschamps, Enrique & Iraola a thing or two.
22 Jul 2026 23:21:37
Tbf I'm not 100% sold on Barcola and feel he'll be an expensive risk, however I'd probably trust the opinion of Deschamps and Enrique over some random Uber driver's opinion. There's definitely a player in there, just whether he's cut out for the physicality of the Prem, who knows.
I'm sure the same Uber driver might have said similar or worse to Ekitike when he "failed" at PSG too.
His pace alone is frightening, to be honest, but everyone these days nearly has pace in the Prem. I wouldn't mind taking him as a Gakpo replacement, I'm not convinced he's the man for the right hand side though, but would certainly not be devastated if we signed him. 40mil doesn't get you much these days in a world where Rogers and Anderson are worth 115mil plus.
22 Jul 2026 23:51:05
Barcola's miss when clean through in the last few minutes of one of the French World Cup games was enough for me. Lots of pace, no composure. Would avoid this deal at all costs.
23 Jul 2026 00:02:33
I won't pay this any heed until I have been presented with Iraola's views on running inner city, app based, taxi services.
Just for balance, you understand.
23 Jul 2026 06:36:18
I need to know what the Lyft driver thought before deciding whether to be outraged or not.
23 Jul 2026 07:09:59
RedTed, would u not take Olise then because of the 2 sitters he missed?
23 Jul 2026 08:08:22
What's he going to teach Deschamps and Enrique? He was mostly benched for the pair of them.
23 Jul 2026 08:26:48
I'll continue banging the same drum as from the beginning of summer. Barcola would be an awful buy and a complete waste of money.
23 Jul 2026 09:30:32
They selected him for the bench for one of the best national teams in the world and one of the best club sides (if not the best) in the world, Kippers.
I doubt either would say we were getting robbed paying 40m for him.
The taxi driver might know his footy, but I'm playing safe in thinking Deschamps and Enrique know a lot more.
23 Jul 2026 09:58:55
When we were the best team in Europe, we were selecting Divock Origi from the bench. Didn't mean he was good enough to play for Barca or Real Madrid's first team every week. Just saying. ?
23 Jul 2026 11:21:15
Gordy, you know die-hard Lyon fans hate PSG with the heat of a thousand fires, right?
23 Jul 2026 11:30:48
There's a big risk with all of these wingers, as they're either young with limited playing time, limited big club or international experience, or both. That's ok for £40-60m players, but not £100m. Regardless of market conditions, there's a limit to ticket and commercial income to fund these deals.
They've all got pace and reasonably good stats when they play, but they're hardly the finished product. Probably the common sense type, but would have been someone like Bowen. But would supporters have accepted it.
23 Jul 2026 13:08:11
My die-hard PSG son-in-law basically has the same opinion on Barcola as your taxi driver. Great pace, gets past his man, not enough end product.
Then again, so was the verdict of a certain Roma winger a few years ago. He hit the gym and worked tirelessly on his finishing under Klopp, and did quite well for us in the end.
23 Jul 2026 18:45:48
Alberto Aqualani lol?