Liverpool bid £50m for Sarr after two Minteh offers fall short of Brighton's £70m valuation

Liverpool have submitted a £50m offer for Crystal Palace winger Ismaila Sarr after walking away from negotiations with Brighton over Yankuba Minteh, whose £70m valuation the club were unwilling to meet.

The Reds made two bids for Gambia international Minteh, both of which fell short of Brighton’s asking price. With the summer transfer window closing on Monday at 11pm, manager Andoni Iraola has turned to Sarr as the primary target to address a shortage of wide forwards at Anfield.

Sarr, 28, is understood to be keen on the move. The Senegal international joined Crystal Palace two years ago for £12.5m on a five-year deal, meaning Liverpool’s £50m offer would represent a substantial profit for the Eagles. Liverpool’s interest in Sarr is not new — the club considered signing him in 2020 while he was at Watford before ultimately pursuing Diogo Jota instead.

Liverpool are also in separate talks with Paris Saint-Germain over Bradley Barcola, who is valued at £145m, though the Sarr pursuit is understood to be an independent line of enquiry rather than a fallback.

The urgency to recruit stems from a difficult 13 months at the club. The death of Diogo Jota, combined with the departures of Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, has left Iraola short of proven wide options. Victor Munoz arrived for £34m in July, but the manager has been candid about needing further reinforcement, particularly with Cody Gakpo attracting interest from Tottenham and Manchester City.

“Some deals you have to wait until the end,” Iraola said. “But the end is the important picture, the one we will have on September 1, because it is true that we are still quite thin.”

At a recent press conference, Iraola elaborated on the frustration of a window that overlaps with the start of the season. “I hate these two weeks or 10 days that we have because there is a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “But we have to adapt and not spend too much time thinking about these things.”

Sarr has proven a persistent problem for Liverpool since arriving in the Premier League from Rennes in 2019. Only Ollie Watkins and Erling Haaland — both with eight — have scored more goals against the Reds in all competitions during that period than Sarr’s seven.