There is a particular kind of summer madness that grips football at this time of year. The window is open, the rumours are swirling, and somewhere in the distance you can already hear the clock ticking down to 1 September. Liverpool supporters know this feeling better than most, and right now, the noise around Bradley Barcola is getting louder with every passing day.

The Reds are preparing an offer for the Paris Saint-Germain winger. That much has been established. What is less clear is the precise timing — but what has become increasingly apparent is that events happening nowhere near Merseyside are conspiring to put Liverpool in a stronger negotiating position than they perhaps could have hoped for even a fortnight ago.

Let us start in Paris. PSG have confirmed the signing of Maghnes Akliouche from Monaco, with the deal verified by journalist Ben Jacobs. The fee? Around €50m. Now here is where it gets interesting from a Liverpool perspective. PSG have been demanding a figure roughly three times that amount for Barcola. Think about that for a moment. The club are asking Liverpool to pay considerably more than triple what they themselves have just spent on the man they are bringing in to bolster the wide areas Barcola would vacate.

As Farrell Keeling put it for Empire of the Kop, Liverpool have every right to point to this deal as a reference point. The optics of arguing your outgoing player is worth three times the man replacing him are, to put it diplomatically, not ideal for PSG. The Akliouche deal does two things simultaneously — it gives PSG greater squad depth and therefore more flexibility to sanction Barcola's departure, and it hands Liverpool genuine leverage in the fee negotiations. Both of those things are good news for the Reds.

PSG, for their part, were reportedly always confident of completing the Akliouche move despite Liverpool's tentative enquiry for the Monaco man earlier in the summer. That interest from Liverpool was more exploratory than serious, and it has now closed. The focus remains firmly on Barcola.

Meanwhile, cast your eyes south to Madrid. Reports from Marca have suggested Real Madrid issued Vinicius Junior something of a take-it-or-leave-it contract offer, with the club prepared to open the door to a sale this summer if the Brazilian does not sign. Liverpool were briefly mentioned in connection with Vinicius, but that was quickly established to be wide of the mark — the Reds hierarchy did not view him as a realistic or desirable target. Arsenal emerged as the club with genuine interest should he become available.

The significance of the Vinicius situation for Liverpool is not about the player himself. It is about what it means for Arsenal. If Madrid's refusal to break their wage structure leads to a genuine Vinicius sale, the Gunners may suddenly find themselves with a priority of their own to attend to — and rather less time and energy to dedicate to matching Liverpool's pursuit of Barcola.

The field has been cleared from another direction too. Bayern Munich's sporting director Max Eberl has publicly stated that Bayern have finished their business in this transfer window. Beyond that general position, journalist Christian Falk addressed the Barcola rumours directly in his regular column on 31 July. Falk confirmed that Barcola is on Bayern's shortlist and that checks were made on his availability earlier in the summer, but the conclusion is blunt — he is too expensive for this window and not a feasible option right now.

Falk's observation that Bayern could use a player like Barcola in the future is telling. They want him, but not now. Liverpool, on the other hand, want him now. That distinction matters enormously. With Bayern out of the running, one of the more credible potential rivals for Barcola's signature has effectively removed itself from the equation.

The question of how Liverpool fund a deal of this scale lingers in the background. The Reds have not generated significant revenue through player sales this summer, and the future of certain squad members remains uncertain. Those are moving parts yet to fully resolve themselves, but the broader picture is of a transfer situation that is moving in Liverpool's direction with each passing day.

Barcola is 23 years old, in the form of his life, and represents exactly the kind of profile Liverpool are targeting. Bayern have acknowledged he is the number one option to replace Michael Olise if that situation changes next summer, which is a timely reminder that standing still is rarely an option in this market.

The window closes on 1 September. The dominoes are falling. How Liverpool play the next few weeks could define their season before a ball has even been kicked.