Arsenal are monitoring Rio Ngumoha’s situation with Liverpool, eyeing up a move if the player doesn’t establish himself on Andoni Iraola’s left wing.
Alan Nixon reports on his Patreon that Arsenal are watching developments between Liverpool and Rio Ngumoha with growing interest, adding that the Gunners will look to make a move for the player if he doesn’t establish himself on his current club’s left-hand side.
Such a move would have been relatively inconceivable even just a few months ago.
18-year-old Ngumoha had established himself in the Liverpool squad, he was getting regular minutes in the second half of the 2025/26 campaign, and it looked like things could open up even more with Cody Gakpo’s touted departure to Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur.
Instead, Ngumoha’s situation at Liverpool has significantly worsened. The club have signed both Bradley Barcola and Victor Munoz for big money, and they ended up holding onto Gakpo as well.
Ngumoha has only made one Premier League start in Liverpool’s opening four games, and it was on the right, not his favoured position on the left.
With Munoz and Barcola both making starts at the weekend against Fulham, the new signings seem to have consigned Ngumoha to a bench role. At 23 and 24-years-old respectively, Munoz and Barcola should both be around for many years to come.
Then Gakpo is also still an option on both flanks, starting three of Liverpool’s opening Premier League games and providing four direct goal contributions. And when Federico Chiesa returns, he’ll block things up even further.
Ngumoha clearly isn’t nearly as close to a starting role as he was at the start of the summer, and if he looks at all unsettled by that, Arsenal are evidently ready to pounce.
It’s worth mentioning that David Ornstein reported for The Athletic over the summer that Bayern Munich were also interested in Ngumoha, and Liverpool were emphatic that they would turn down any bids from the German club.
The player has a contract until June 2028, so Liverpool can’t be forced into a sale just yet.
But if he refuses to extend and enters the final year of his deal next summer, Liverpool may then consider cashing in.
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