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Signing a winger has been a priority since the departure of Mohamed Salah and Barcola has been on Liverpool's radar for a number of years.

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The 23-year-old has two years left on his PSG contract and has indicated he will not be signing a new one amid frustrations at a lack of game time. The opportunity to join Liverpool is said to appeal to the player.

The key to getting any deal moving will be PSG's willingness to reduce the price tag on the man they bought for around £40m back in 2023.

Valuations of top-level players this summer have been high. Sky Sports News reported on Tuesday that PSG value the France international as high as £145m (€170m). However other sources have now indicated it could be around £128.5m (€150m).

The success of Andoni Iraola's teams at Bournemouth and Rayo Vallecano centred around the pace, energy and work-rate from his wingers, so Barcola could be a key piece of the Spaniard's new Liverpool jigsaw.

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The fact Barcola has won nine major trophies in the last two years, including two Champions League titles, shows the calibre of player they are trying to bring to Anfield.

Arsenal also hold an interest in Barcola.

Carra: Barcola is not the Salah replacement Liverpool need

However, Jamie Carragher does not think Barcola is the player to replace Salah at Anfield.

Carragher questioned why Liverpool were pursuing another left winger when, he says, they have no options on the right.

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"He plays on the opposite flank!" Carragher replied to a Sky Sports post on X asking if Barcola can be Salah's replacement.

"LFC currently have three players who could play from the left in Rio Ngumoha/Cody Gakpo/Florian Wirtz and no one who plays from the right."

Replying to a comment, which suggested Rio Ngumoha could play on the right, he added: "Rio has always played from the left so that's obviously his best position.

"Gakpo should move really but who knows. I'm interested to see where Wirtz plays. If he's 10, Dom (Szoboszlai) plays centre mid.

"I'm not sure about that. Need a right winger desperately!"

Why is Barcola wanted by Liverpool and Arsenal?

Sky Sports' Adam Bate:

Bradley Barcola could be the most expensive transfer of this summer window with Liverpool and Arsenal among the clubs chasing the Paris Saint-Germain forward. But why is he so prized? He has achieved plenty already. But there is more to come.

The 23-year-old France international has just won the Champions League with PSG back-to-back but had to be content with coming off the bench in both finals. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's arrival from Napoli in January of 2025 established him as first choice on the left.

But just because Barcola is not a guaranteed starter in Paris does not mean that he is not a guaranteed star. This is a player with pace, physicality and intelligence, someone whose skills have been honed under Luis Enrique. With Barcola, the potential is as vast as the fee.

Read Adam Bate's feature on Bradley Barcola here...

Could Arsenal come in for Barcola amid Vinicius Jr blow?

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Vinicius Junior will be staying at Real Madrid beyond this summer, Sky Sports News has been told.

The Spanish club have no intention of selling him and are confident he will agree a new contract. This is despite the interest of Arsenal, who are monitoring his situation closely with a year remaining on his current deal.

Sky Sports News' Dharmesh Sheth said this week: "Arsenal will continue to keep an eye on Vinicius Jr's situation. He hasn't signed that new contract yet. As it stands, he has a year left on his contract. That's why they are exploring the conditions of a possible deal.

"How Andrea Berta [sporting director] does his business at Arsenal is very clear. It's not about one target and then the risk of that target not coming.

"They try to get their ducks in a row with three or four deals, get as far down the line as they can with as many targets as possible, and then decide which player they are going to go for.

"One of those players is Bradley Barcola. He's intimated to PSG that he's not going to sign a new contract. That's primarily because in the biggest games last season, he was on the bench.

"He doesn't want to go through that again. It looks like he could become available for a transfer." %!s()

The three-time major champion, one of Ireland's most decorated and popular sporting heroes, was a player in the only previous Ryder Cup to be played in his home country in 2006.

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He represented Europe six times in total as a player - including being part of four triumphs - and was previously a vice-captain on three occasions before becoming captain for the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

"Luke and I arranged to meet up at The Open and chatted about it, and we felt we could strike up a good team again," said Harrington.

"Obviously, he was my vice-captain in 2021, and we have worked together as vice-captains in the past. And certainly, I feel I've something to give.

"Luke has a very strong team around him already and he felt that we would work well together.

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"It's something I didn't expect. I honestly didn't think I'd ever wear the European Ryder Cup logo again. So I'm very happy to be part of it.

"The Ryder Cup has been a special part of my life. Representing Europe has always been one of the highlights of my golfing career, and to be able to do it again in this situation, especially in Ireland, is special.

"You wouldn't want to miss out with it being in Ireland, so I'm very pleased.

"I think it will be a spectacular occasion and one of the great sporting events to be played in the country. The whole of Ireland will be behind it, watching it, enjoying it and living it.

"The fans are going to be fantastic, and I think the atmosphere will be second to none."

Donald said: "Padraig is someone I thought about quite a lot, especially with it being in Adare.

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"I've been around Padraig in many Ryder Cup team rooms, as a player, as a vice-captain to his captaincy, and he's been a vice-captain before in the past as well.

"So he brings a wealth of experience, and I do love the fact that there's a connection. He understands the Irish crowds and all that goes with having a Ryder Cup in Ireland. I think it's going to be very special for him.

"He's loved in Ireland with what he's achieved in the game, and that will only bring more energy to our team. We'll get the fans even more behind us, and you know I think that can only be a good thing. I'm very excited to have his expertise."

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Harrington made his Ryder Cup debut at The Country Club in Brookline in 1999 and was ever-present for the next five editions, helping Europe to victory in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010. He contributed a total of 10½ points to the European Team during that period.

He was named as vice-captain for the first time by fellow Dubliner Paul McGinley for the victory at Gleneagles in 2014, a role he returned to in 2016 at Hazeltine National under Darren Clarke and in 2018 for the victory at Le Golf National in Paris under Denmark's Thomas Bjorn.

Harrington then led Team Europe at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, which was postponed by 12 months due to the Covid pandemic in 2020.

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The Rugby Park side were 11th when he was appointed in January, having lost more than half of their league matches, before a run of wins towards the end of the season saw them avoid the relegation play-offs.

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"The feeling is that there's a lot of positivity around the club in terms of their thoughts for the season, in particular because of how well we finished," he told Sky Sports News.

"But that's in the past and it's up to myself, Billy [Dodds] and the rest of the staff to really build a squad that can carry that on.

"If you are standing still, you're effectively going backwards. So we need to definitely try and move ourselves forward.

"We don't want to be in a position we were in last January when I took over. We want to be really positive."

Killie head to McDiarmid Park on Sunday for their Premiership opener against newly-promoted St Johnstone, live on Sky Sports, and McCann is expecting a tricky test.

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"Everybody maybe thinks it might be an easier start because it's St Johnstone and they have just come up from the Championship.

"But I think Simo [Valakari] has a real solid way of playing.

"Like every manager, we're probably not quite at full tilt yet. Not at the top gears and we'll continue to strive to get there.

"But I just think the positivity of last year is a good thing to build on."

Pitch perfect?

Kilmarnock have ripped up the artificial pitch at Rugby Park, returning to grass for the first time since 2014.

It is after top-flight clubs voted to ban plastic pitches from the start of the 2026/27 campaign, although Falkirk have been given an additional season before replacing their playing surface.

"The beauty about our pitch for this season is it's laid on top of what was the astroturf last year, so it's completely flat," McCann added.

"Four weeks ago, five weeks ago, that was just a sandpit. I'm told by the groundsmen that in the next week or so it's going to really thicken up and it'll be a surface that will rival any in the country.

"I know we came in last year and it was really positive winning six out of the eight here at home, it became a bit of a fortress for us.

"But I think it's going to help us with the grass pitch.

"If I'm honest, I think every top league should have the grass pitches.

"This will be one of the finest in the country and hopefully that can benefit how we want to play." %!s()

The emphatic nature of Norris' victory after McLaren brought a significant upgrade package to the Hungaroring has created hope that the Woking squad may have permanently joined the battle for victories, and that the Brit can surge back into title contention.

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Speaking on the latest episode of Sky Sports' The F1 Show podcast, Croft suggested that the crucial factor will be whether McLaren can continue to outperform Antonelli's Mercedes team.

Croft said: "One of the big things coming out of the summer break, can McLaren carry this on? Are they going to put their eggs in a Lando Norris basket? And is it going to come up trumps once again?

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The Constructors' Championship, I think, is still very much up for grabs. The Drivers' Championship, I don't think Lando is that far behind that he can't make up a deficit.

"And seriously, I haven't even gone on holiday yet. I can't wait to get back to business at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. I don't want a three-week break; I want the racing thick and fast!"

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Can McLaren maintain form?

One of McLaren's weaknesses so far this season has been their inability to get full productivity out of the power unit supplied to them by Mercedes, which the Silver Arrows have better exploited.

The fact that Hungary is one of the least demanding circuits on the calendar from a power-unit perspective leaves some doubt as to whether McLaren can replicate the performance elsewhere.

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However, Croft pointed out that the Hungaroring has similarities to Monaco, where Mercedes were still able to win in early June.

"We're 11 races into the season now, and I think McLaren are understanding the power unit way better than they were at the start of the year," Croft said.

"Is it a surprise they did so well in Hungary? Well, on past form, no, they were one-two for the last two years in Budapest.

"But it is a little surprise given how strong Mercedes were in Monaco. I mean, that might be driver-specific in that respect. It might just be that Kimi was exceptional that weekend. But I don't think the Mercedes are necessarily weak at a track like Budapest.

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"What delighted me in terms of stronger competition to the championship leaders, and we want to see this championship go right to the wire because that's way more fun, was that McLaren's upgrade worked.

"They've taken their time this year to play catch-up, but they are now catching up, I think. And I think the signs were there right from the start as Lando built up the pace into the weekend that this was a good upgrade, they had the pace, and they were ready to challenge Mercedes."

Bernie: All to play for after summer break

There remains some doubt over whether all 12 of the remaining scheduled rounds will be able to go ahead due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, but Sky Sports F1's Bernie Collins thinks there is time for Norris to turn things around regardless.

"I think this year is going to be about upgrades," Collins said on The F1 Show podcast. "It's going to be about who can get on top of these cars, who can get the best out of the cars, the best out of the engines.

"At the moment as the calendar sets, we've done 11 rounds; we've got 12 still to go. So there's still lots and lots of points on the board."

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Max Verstappen trailed then championship leader Oscar Piastri by 104 points with nine rounds remaining last season, before fighting back to ultimately finish just two points behind title winner Norris in the final standings.

Collins added: "We've seen McLaren this weekend at least have a little bit of the upper hand. And maybe Mercedes have been a bit distracted with each other in some of the earlier races as well.

"So, I think that it's still all to play for. I think you've pretty much got three cars, maybe Verstappen as well in that fight, that I think who knows as we go through later races who will be at the front week in, week out. And that's really interesting to watch."

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The Strait of Hormuz is rattling global trade, but the waterway is just one example of a vital maritime corridor becoming a frontline, in a new age of drones and missiles targeting economic lifelines.

From the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea to the Black Sea, attacks on commercial vessels have disrupted trade, raised insurance and freight costs, and forced shipping companies to reconsider routes once treated as dependable.

The stakes are high: roughly 80% of global merchandise trade by volume moves by sea. Disrupting even one major route can delay cargo, tighten supplies and drive up prices for energy, food and consumer goods thousands of miles away.

How drones are changing maritime warfare

"We have a new chokepoint and a new war," David Roche, president and global strategist at Quantum Strategy, wrote in a July report, referring to the Sea of Azov, where Ukrainian drones have been striking Russian tankers, and the Black Sea.

Roche described this fighting as the first maritime offensive conducted almost entirely with drones, supplemented by missiles. Such weapons give smaller military forces a cheaper means of threatening ships, ports and other infrastructure whose disruption carries a huge economic cost.

Quantum estimates that about 25% of Russia's grain exports and 25% to 30% of its Black Sea oil exports could be disrupted. Russia grows more than a fifth of internationally traded wheat, magnifying the potential consequences for global food prices.

Yevgeniya Gaber, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Russia's move earlier this month to suspend shipping through the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, has effectively shut down a vital maritime corridor.

"Maritime transport through the Sea of Azov had become an increasingly important alternative to the land corridor connecting Russia with occupied Crimea," Gaber told CNBC by email.

"The economic implications are equally important," Gaber said, adding that the Sea of Azov has been used not only to transport sanctioned crude oil and petroleum products but also grain, coal and steel. 

Gaber said Ukraine's efforts to exploit Russia's maritime and economic weaknesses constitute "one of the most significant blows to military and commercial fleets" since World War II. Indeed, Ukraine says it has degraded roughly one-third of Russia's Black Sea fleet since 2022.

Why the Panama Canal could be the next flashpoint

In the Strait of Hormuz, commercial operators are contending with attacks and rapidly shifting signals over whether passage is safe. Governments can declare a waterway open, but shipowners make their own decisions based on the likelihood of a vessel being hit and crew members being injured or killed.

"We often treat the Strait of Hormuz, the Black Sea, or Bab el-Mandeb as isolated events. They are not," said Daejin Lee, global head of research at Fertistream Freight.

"These waterways are increasingly becoming battlegrounds within the broader transition toward a new world order," he told CNBC via email.

And the next threats are already emerging.

"If you're talking about the next flashpoint, I wouldn't look at the Strait of Hormuz," said Lars Jensen, chief executive officer of Vespucci Maritime. "I would look at the Panama Canal."

The strategic passage, which has offered a shortcut for ships transiting between the Pacific and the North Atlantic for more than a century, is already caught in a geopolitical dispute involving the U.S., China and Panama over influence. Potential weather-related restrictions toward the end of this year and early next year could compound those tensions by reducing capacity, Jensen added.

Impact on shipping 'bigger than most realize' 

For shipping companies, the challenge is preparing for a world where the next chokepoint can emerge before the last one has reopened.

Kevin O'Marah, co-founder and chief research officer at supply chain intelligence firm Zero100, told CNBC the Strait of Hormuz became the most critical part of the U.S.-Iran war after Iran discovered merely threatening traffic there was enough to stop it.

While none of Zero100's clients had come under attack in the strait, O'Marah said some had decided to avoid that risk by actively managing inventories and rerouting shipments. 

"It has added cost and delay for some of our clients in the energy, food, and electronics industries," he said.

"As of now, traffic through the Strait looks to be running at about half the normal flow. The recent breakdown in the ceasefire has definitely hurt the situation but no one is surprised. Supply chain leaders, and in particular logistics specialists like Martin Brower and Maersk, are aware and have well established protocols for dealing with the risk."

This photo obtained by AFP from the Iranian news agency Tasnim shows an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) boat allegedly taking part in an operation to seize ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, on April 21, 2026.

Meysam Mirzadeh | Afp | Getty Images

Mitigation strategies include rerouting across the Arabian Peninsula via pipeline for oil, overland into Turkey for certain kinds of commodities and avoiding the area completely as much as possible, O'Marah said.

The war in the Middle East "does not look like an escalating conflict to most supply chain leaders, but it does look likely to be a long-term problem in terms of freedom of movement through the Strait of Hormuz," he added.

"We are planning on a steady state of transportation uncertainty and costs associated with reroutings, inventory buffering, and shipping surcharges."

Alain Bejjani, a Dubai-based investor, business executive and judge on "Shark Tank Lebanon," told CNBC shipping lanes would stay at the center of the war "because they are the conflict."

"The war has migrated from territory to logistics. A strait does not close when missiles fly; it closes when insurers stop writing cover," he said. "That makes disruption cheap to sustain and hard to price, which is exactly why it persists."

A spokesperson for insurance broker Gallagher told CNBC war risk insurance — an add-on that covers financial losses caused by war, terrorism, and civil unrest — is still available. But they noted that "a handful but not many" ship owners or charters are opting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz.

"Given the challenging maritime security environment, rates have increased from levels that owners and charterers will be used to. The cost will vary depending on the vessel type, cargo and routing, however marine insurers are continuing to provide cover and helping to ensure marine commerce can continue with adequate coverage in place," they added.

How companies are responding to shipping risks

Bejjani told CNBC that the structural consequence of maritime warfare "is bigger than most people realize."

"The Gulf is bracketed by two straits, not one, and the region is now designing around both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb to the maximum extent possible," he said.

"That is new. Past crises produced hedges. This one is producing an architecture: overland corridors, bypass pipelines, forward storage near the markets that matter most. It will cost heavily, take a decade, and ripple for decades more. I expect other strait-dependent regions to follow, though few with the same urgency or resources."

Vessels transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen on July 25, 2026.

Khaled Ziad | Afp | Getty Images

He warned that, although shipping will maintain its edge in terms of volumes, it is likely to "lose its monopoly on trust" in the business world.

"Other modes of transport will be substantially enhanced where certainty matters most, and redundancy becomes a permanent, priced feature of logistics," he said.

"The strait will reopen. The assumption that it stays open for free will not return." %!s()