Liverpool are working to secure Rio Ngumoha on a new contract as interest from Arsenal continues to grow around the teenage winger.<\/p>\n
Ngumoha has already made five more appearances for Liverpool this season and remains central to the club\u2019s first-team thinking. That is notable given the summer arrivals of Bradley Barcola and Victor Mu\u00f1oz, both of whom operate in the same left-wing role that suits the youngster best.<\/p>\n
The situation is made more pressing by the fact that his current deal runs until 2028, with no agreement yet in place on an extension. David Ornstein has confirmed Arsenal\u2019s interest on The Athletic FC podcast, while also stressing that Liverpool are not ready to entertain a sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is some interest from Arsenal in Rio Ngumoha,\u201d said Ornstein. \u201cThere\u2019s surely interest from lots of clubs in him, because he\u2019s such a precocious talent. I did hear over the summer that they like him. They\u2019re allowed to like him; that\u2019s their prerogative. It doesn\u2019t mean Liverpool are going to sell him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to renew his contract. He\u2019s 18 and tied down at Anfield until 2028. I don\u2019t know of an agreement yet on a new deal, so clearly that\u2019s something they\u2019ll try to progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool regard the teenager as untouchable after already turning away interest from Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig last summer. Even so, the amount of football he receives under Andoni Iraola could prove important in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
With Barcola, Mu\u00f1oz and Cody Gakpo among the options on the flanks, there is pressure on the manager to keep Ngumoha involved and avoid any frustration while Liverpool work on a renewal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard Arsenal have some interest in him, but I guess we\u2019ll have to wait and see what happens with him and Liverpool because there is no suggestion he\u2019s unhappy there,\u201d Ornstein added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reported over the summer that Ngumoha was actually Bayern Munich\u2019s top target at one point to strengthen in the wing position. They\u2019d done quite a lot of work on it, but it didn\u2019t develop. Liverpool had no interest in trading him.<\/p>\n
\u201cRB Leipzig were another club credited with interest. What will be really interesting is to see how much game time he gets at Liverpool, because wingers are the big thing for Andoni Iraola.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would expect him to be a real asset for them. Let\u2019s see how it develops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s interest is also tied to their lack of depth on the left side. Christos Tzolis has arrived from Club Brugge, but the loss of Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard has left the area short of natural options.<\/p>\n
At present, Tzolis is mainly competing with Eberechi Eze, who is more naturally suited to central attacking midfield. Mikel Arteta will want reinforcements soon, especially after Arsenal\u2019s unsuccessful attempt to sign Real Madrid\u2019s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior over the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool want a new deal for Rio Ngumoha as Arsenal\u2019s interest grows and Iraola\u2019s minutes may prove decisive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,175],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-19527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-liverpool","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}