Liverpool head coach Arne Slot shakes hands with Rio Ngumoha as he leaves the field after being substituted during the FA Cup third round match against Accrington Stanley at Anfield on January 11 2025
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot shakes hands with Rio Ngumoha as he leaves the field after being substituted during the FA Cup third round match against Accrington Stanley at Anfield on January 11 2025
Liverpool have begun the defence of their Premier League crown in aggressive fashion, signing five players and spending over £200m in the first few weeks of the transfer window. Among those new arrivals are Florian Wirtz, recruited from Bayer Leverkusen for £116m, Jeremie Frimpong, signed from the same club for £29.5m and Milos Kerkez, a £40m capture from Bournemouth.
And despite the exits of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher, the Reds squad is looking stronger as Arne Slot starts his second campaign as head coach.
Slot may want to dip into the transfer market further this summer, with a centre-back and centre-forward both positions in which the Reds could do business, but the Dutchman will be well aware of the talent he possesses in the youth ranks at Anfield.
Indeed, Slot handed a debut to 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha last season and he won't be afraid to turn to youth in the upcoming campaign, either.
But who could enjoy a breakout season at ? Our writers have their say:
Paul Gorst
Liverpool are always keen to play down the hype around talents that are signed to the academy ranks for obvious reasons but there was little they could do about the interest in Rio Ngumoha last summer.
Signed from Chelsea in a deal that left the Londoners furious, "potentially elite" was the verdict of one insider to the ECHO last year and the youngster was so highly regarded at Stamford Bridge that even John Terry was getting involved to wish him well on Instagram after his move to Liverpool was complete.
Ngumoha told a podcast last year that he had designs on winning the Ballon d'Or during his career and while the wisdom of allowing a 16-year-old on camera to talk up such lofty hopes without having made a first-team appearance can be questioned, there is little doubting the ambition.
That being said, Ngumoha might have to settle for simply catching Arne Slot's eye for now over the coming weeks. The electric winger showed flashes of his undoubted quality at times in the academy ranks and was rewarded with a spot in the team that beat Accrington in the FA Cup back in January as a result.
It will be interesting to see how much game-time Ngumoha gets this summer. With Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo fighting for position on that left flank, competition is fierce but senior involvement would likely do the fledgling a world of good this summer in his overall aim to make the grade in the senior set-up.
He will be one to keep a close eye on this summer. There are high hopes for him at Anfield and for good reason.
Joe Rimmer
Liverpool's Academy has been one of the best and most consistent things about the club over the past decade.
FSG's commitment to ensuring the Reds got their work around youth right has paid dividends, whether that be through the emergence of talent, the transfer fees that now come in from homegrown players or, most significantly, the Academy's contribution to Liverpool's on-pitch success, it's a key part of the club's DNA.
And while last season wasn't a vintage campaign for Liverpool's youth sides, the emergence of Trey Nyoni, Rio Ngumoha and Amaro Nallo still speaks volumes about the quality at that level.
So who could make their breakthrough this time around? My answer to that is perhaps a bit of a fudge, as this man has already shown fans what he is capable of.
But it has to be a big season for Jayden Danns.
The tall centre-forward has talent, desire and perhaps the key ingredient, a knack of being in the right place at the right time.
And while he does that on the pitch, perhaps, should Darwin Nunez indeed leave the club in the coming weeks, a fit again Danns could be in the right place to show Slot what he's capable of in pre-season.
More likely, though, is a loan move and that will be key to the teenager's further development as he looks to put injury problems behind him and start to gain experience. Liverpool, no doubt, will be watching closely.