The Yan Diomande transfer saga is finally coming to an end after Real Madrid agreed to pay a whopping £120m to sign the 19-year-old.

For a large portion of the summer it had looked as though Diomande would be heading to Liverpool, but after initially looking set for Paris Saint-Germain instead, the Ivorian is on his way to Spain.

There are some murky reasons why Diomande did not join Liverpool, with some claims that his agency made a move to England impossible having learnt that their commission could be in jeopardy if he joined a Premier League club.

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But, while it may have ultimately been impossible for the Reds to sign him, they do have one very big reason to be slightly wary of the huge fee Real are paying to buy Diomande.

Since losing out on the RB Leipzig winger, Liverpool have put all of their attention into signing Bradley Barcola from PSG. The price has become a big sticking point, however, with the French side reportedly maintaining their stance that Barcola is worth £140m, while Liverpool have seemingly indicated an unwillingness to go above even £90m.

PSG’s reasoning has so far been based on the idea that if the likes of Elliot Anderson and Morgan Rogers are going for well north of £100m, then Barcola should be as well.

If that is not completely unreasonable at all, then Diomande’s £120m fee should also worry Liverpool as a potential yardstick. If a 19-year-old with one excellent season under his belt can go for nine figures and then some, then what is a 23-year-old two-time Champions League winner with significant national team experience going for? While PSG will be emboldened, that is certainly bad news for Liverpool.

Liverpool may have to accept Barcola terms

First things first, there is no chance that Diomande is worth £120m. It would have been fascinating to see whether Liverpool would have paid that amount had they been able to, but it feels unlikely on the surface.

Nevertheless, that is where the market is, and having lost out on the Ivory Coast international, Liverpool want a top player to fill that void. In order to get that, they’re going to have to pay.

In many ways, Barcola is very comparable to Diomande, and not in a way that could be seen as favourable to the Reds right now.

Though Madrid are arguably paying for potential more than anything else, Barcola could also get better in the future and, as things stand, it would be hard to make the argument that Diomande is a better player.

Of course, every deal is different and there is a caveat that Barcola wants to join Liverpool and that his contract is running down without any chance of renewal.

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However, if they felt like they were beginning to make progress during negotiations with PSG, the Reds may now feel that Diomande’s move to Real could just have thrown another fairly big spanner into the works.

Diomande has shaped Liverpool’s window this summer, and though he will not be joining the Reds in 2026, he could still have a big say in who does. It’s crunch time for Liverpool: pay up, or look elsewhere.