"To be fair, that is all with my agent now," Rio Ngumoha said as talk around his future picked up again. The Liverpool winger added that the talks are going well, and that he is happier letting his football do the talking than getting pulled into transfer chatter.

Liverpool's case for patience

Ngumoha is 18 and his contract is due to run until the summer of 2028. Liverpool paid £2.8million in compensation fees to Chelsea in the summer of 2024, which gives some sense of how highly they rate him.

He has also already played in five of Liverpool’s seven Premier League matches so far this campaign. Those five league appearances have brought 153 Premier League minutes, while he has added two Champions League appearances and 145 minutes in Europe.

That is not fringe usage. Liverpool are not asking him to sit and wait; they are already giving him meaningful minutes in both competitions, which fits the tone of his response. He said, "I enjoy playing, and all of that stuff is in the back of my mind really. I just play for the club, and hopefully I can carry on doing well."

The outside interest around him

Arsenal interest is clearly part of the background now, with the Gunners second in the Premier League on 18 points after seven matches. Arsenal's position only adds to the appeal for a young attacker, especially when his own club are still building around him.

There is also reported interest from Bayern München, who sit top of the Bundesliga on 14 points after six matches. Glen Johnson has already argued that Ngumoha should stay grounded, saying: "Bayern Munich is obviously a fantastic club and side, and big credit to Rio Ngumoha that he has interest from such a big club, but I don't think he has to be looking anywhere near that."

The key point is that Ngumoha has not bitten on the noise. He says the contract side is being handled by his agent, he says the talks are going well, and the football side already shows Liverpool are trusting him with more than token minutes. The next step is simple enough, keep performing and let the agreement follow the same path.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →