Barcelona’s interest in Frimpong says as much about Liverpool as it does about him

Jeremie Frimpong’s name circling Barcelona is one of those stories that forces a club to look in the mirror. According to journalist Juan Jesus, Barcelona are seriously weighing him up as an option at right-back, with Liverpool reportedly ready to let him leave for around €35 million if the right offer lands. “Frimpong is very open to signing with Barça,” the report claims, and on the surface that reads like a player who has already mentally moved on.

A rebuild that keeps asking hard questions

Liverpool’s summer reset under Andoni Iraola was always going to produce casualties, and not every one of them would be a surprise. Frimpong’s name fits a pattern that has followed him since he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen: obvious physical tools, genuine excitement, but a role in England that has never quite clicked the way his best form in Germany did.

At Leverkusen he looked like a player who could turn a back line into an extra attacking outlet almost by himself. At Anfield, the adjustment from a wing-back system to a more rounded Premier League right-back brief has exposed gaps that were easier to hide further up the pitch. That is not necessarily a reflection on his talent so much as a reminder that systems matter as much as individual ability.

Why Liverpool might actually listen

The right side of Liverpool’s defence has been a running theme of concern for more than a year now. Conor Bradley has struggled to stay fit for long stretches, and neither he nor Frimpong has fully settled the position the way the club hoped when both were recruited. If Iraola does not see Frimpong as central to his plans going forward, there is a logical argument for cashing in while his profile still carries weight across Europe.

A fee in the region of €35 million would not be a disaster for Liverpool given how the transfer market has moved, particularly for a player whose long-term fit at the club already looks uncertain. Clubs that manage squads well know the difference between backing a struggling player and prolonging a mismatch that nobody quite wants to admit.

Our view

We will admit this one stings a little. Frimpong arrived with genuine buzz, the kind of pace and directness that looked built for chaos against tired Premier League defences. It simply has not translated, and that is a fair verdict rather than a harsh one.

Football moves on quickly, and if Iraola does not rate him as part of the next phase, dragging the situation out helps nobody, least of all Frimpong himself. Liverpool have been burned before by holding onto square pegs for round holes a season too long. If Barcelona genuinely believe they can get the best from him, and the fee is sensible, letting him go in search of a better fit might be the mature call for everyone involved.

What a Frimpong exit would actually solve

Selling Frimpong would not fix Liverpool’s right-back situation on its own, and that is the part that deserves more attention than it usually gets. Conor Bradley remains the obvious long-term option when healthy, but his injury history means Liverpool cannot plan around him with total confidence either. Losing Frimpong without a clear replacement plan would simply swap one problem for another, dressed up as progress because a fee came in.

That is why any decision on his future needs to be about more than clearing a wage or banking a fee. Liverpool have to be honest about whether they trust Bradley to carry the position alone, whether Ronald Araujo’s versatility is a short-term fix or a long-term answer, and whether the January or summer market actually offers a specialist upgrade. Selling for the sake of it, without that plan in place, would be the kind of decision supporters end up questioning a year later.

The market context matters too

Barcelona shopping in this part of the market is not unusual. They have built a habit of identifying players who look undervalued relative to their physical attributes, even when the underlying numbers at their current club are mixed. Frimpong fits that profile closely, and a reported €35 million fee would represent a fairly modest outlay for a player still only in his mid twenties with Champions League experience already on his résumé.

For Liverpool, the calculation is less about the glamour of the buyer and more about whether the number represents fair value given how his first eighteen months in England have gone. If the figure holds up against what internal recruitment data suggests he is worth now, rather than what he was worth on arrival, there should be little hesitation in accepting it.