Liverpool Explore Signing Alejandro Balde from Barcelona
Liverpool’s rebuild has reached the point where every conversation seems to end with the same conclusion: they need everything. Or at least it feels that way inside a squad that has swallowed close to £500m across the last two summers and still looks short in half a dozen areas.
Midfield? Could use another body.
Wide forward? You can make a case.
Centre-back? Absolutely.
Both full-back positions? Put them on the list.
Into that chaos steps Julian Ward, the new sporting director, charged with sorting the urgent from the merely important. He cannot fix it all in January. Nobody can. One, maybe two key moves at most. So where do Liverpool strike first?
According to Sport, the early work is being done on the left side of defence.
Liverpool turn to Mendes and Balde
Jorge Mendes has reportedly held talks with Liverpool over his client Alejandro Balde, the Barcelona left-back whose situation in Catalonia has cooled since the summer.
Balde stayed put when a move away was heavily floated in the last window, backing himself to carve out a bigger role at Barça. The minutes have not flowed as he hoped. Now, the 21-year-old is understood to be open to a change of scenery, and Mendes is listening to offers.
Liverpool are not alone in those conversations, but they have something few others can offer right now: a glaring vacancy.
No direct replacement arrived when Andy Robertson departed in the summer. Instead, Liverpool turned back to Kostas Tsimikas after a difficult loan spell at AS Roma. It was a pragmatic decision, not a grand plan.
The result is a strangely fragile depth chart. The jury is still out on Milos Kerkez, and inside the club there is little sense that Tsimikas represents genuine long-term competition for the left-back berth. His contract runs out at the end of the season. That is not the profile of a cornerstone; it is the profile of a stopgap.
A position that can’t wait forever
Liverpool know they cannot drift on like this. At some point between January and the summer, a new left-back has to walk through the door. The only real debate is timing.
Balde’s openness to a move in the winter window changes the equation. When a young, high-ceiling full-back at Barcelona signals he is ready to go, clubs listen. When your own depth chart at that position is held together by short-term deals and question marks, you do more than listen.
You act.
Liverpool are not in a position to launch a scattergun window. Every signing now has to carry weight. A left-back who can grow into the role for the next five to seven years ticks that box in bold ink.
Talks with Mendes are only the first step. Barcelona will have their own demands, and other clubs will circle. But in a squad crying out for clarity at full-back, this is one area where Liverpool finally look ready to move with purpose.
If they decide Balde is the answer, January may not just bring another name through the door. It could deliver the first clear statement of what this new Liverpool under Ward really wants to be.
