Liverpool are considering allowing Cody Gakpo to leave this summer as the club plans a significant attacking overhaul following Mohamed Salah’s departure as a free agent, with AS Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche firmly in the frame to fill the right-side role that Salah vacated after nine years. TeamTalk reported the Gakpo possibility, while L’Equipe named Akliouche as the player Liverpool are most actively monitoring for the position, placing a fee in the region of €50 million that the club has not been deterred by.
Gakpo’s situation is complicated by both form and squad dynamics. He signed a new contract at Anfield last year but has struggled for consistency this season without Luis Diaz providing competition and pressure from the left flank. In a campaign defined by collective underperformance across the squad, Gakpo has been symptomatic rather than exceptional. His value in the market remains reasonable, and a sale would generate funds to reinvest in multiple positions.
Akliouche, 24, has produced six goals and six assists in 30 Ligue 1 appearances this season for Monaco, operating primarily from the right flank and cutting inside onto his stronger left foot. That profile mirrors Salah’s stylistic footprint closely enough to be relevant, though no single player will replicate what Salah contributed across a decade at Anfield. What Akliouche offers is potential, age, and a pattern of production that has drawn sustained attention from elite clubs across Europe.
Monaco blocked his departure last summer by holding firm on a €70 million valuation that scared off Tottenham and others who had been in contact with his camp. The revised figure of €50 million for 2026 reflects the reality that Akliouche enters the final stages of a contract cycle that makes retention increasingly difficult for the principality club. L’Equipe described his exit from Monaco this summer as “almost certain” regardless of who signs him.
Liverpool’s summer rebuild is one of the most substantial the club has undertaken in recent memory, with multiple senior departures confirmed or anticipated. The search for Salah’s successor has been the defining project of the recruitment team’s work since January, and Akliouche represents the most credible candidate to have emerged from months of scouting. Paris Saint-Germain remain a competing interest and can offer Champions League football, though Liverpool’s platform and the directness of the Salah comparison narrative carries its own considerable pull.