After Salah, Who? The Names Liverpool Are Already Watching

Nine years. Forty-plus records. Three Premier League titles, a Champions League, and more moments than most clubs see in a generation. When Mohamed Salah finally walks out of Anfield for the last time this summer, he will leave behind a void that no single player can truly fill. That much is certain. What Liverpool do next, though, is a question worth asking now.

Arne Slot will need answers before August arrives.

To be fair, it is not as though the club has been caught flat-footed. Salah’s contract situation has been a slow-moving story for well over a year, and the recruitment team will have been quietly drawing up their shortlists for some time. The question was never really if he would go, but when and, more urgently, who comes next.

What makes this particularly interesting is that Liverpool do not simply need a replacement in terms of position. They need to decide what kind of footballer they want on that right flank. Salah was a specific, almost unrepeatable type of player: a goalscorer wearing a winger’s shirt, with the movement of a striker and the discipline of a full professional. Whoever arrives will inevitably be measured against that standard, and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise.

There are some internal candidates worth considering. Florian Wirtz, Rio Ngumoha and Jeremie Frimpong could each, in different ways, operate in that area of the pitch. But a fresh signing feels far more likely given the scale of what is being replaced.

Two names have attracted genuine attention. Wilfried Gnonto Diomande, the Ivory Coast international, offers something of a different profile on the right side, naturally right-footed and willing to stay wide rather than always cutting inside. He is attracting interest from several clubs, and Liverpool are reportedly among them.

Then there is Michael Olise. The Bayern Munich forward, still only 24, has been one of the most eye-catching players in Europe this season, contributing a goal or an assist in practically every match. Those who watched him at Crystal Palace will not be surprised. He always had this in him. Bayern paid handsomely to bring him to the Bundesliga, and Liverpool would have to do something similar to prise him away. But the case for at least exploring that possibility is hard to argue against.

Olise is also expected to be central to France’s plans at the World Cup, which means his profile and his price will only rise as the months go on. If Liverpool are serious about him, they would be wise to move sooner rather than wait for the summer frenzy to drive the cost even higher.

Nothing about this will be straightforward. Replacing a legend rarely is. But Liverpool have done it before, most notably when Phillipe Coutinho left and the club reinvested in ways nobody quite anticipated. There is reason to trust the process, even if the prospect of life without Salah still feels a little difficult to fully imagine.

The summer is coming. And with it, a new chapter at Anfield.