Liverpool could be on the cusp of landing one of the most precocious teenage talents in English football, and his current club are not one bit happy about it.
On Monday, Fabrizio Romano reported that the Reds are ‘closing in on’ a deal to sign Rio Ngumoha from Chelsea’s academy and are even prepared to forego their existing wage structure in order to secure his services.
In light of that news, Graeme Bailey wrote for HITC that the Blues are furious with their Merseyside counterparts over the proposed transfer, having previously been confident that they’d hold onto the highly coveted 15-year-old.
Ngumoha doesn’t turn 16 until later this month, but it speaks volumes for his talent that he’s already trained with Chelsea’s first team, and journalist Bence Bocsak has said that signing him would be a potentially ‘huge coup’ for Liverpool.
The teenage winger looks set to join Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Ben Doak and Bobby Clark (among others) as outstanding prospects recruited by the Reds at a very young age, with the former going on to become a first-team stalwart at Anfield.
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We can see why the Blues would be far from pleased at the prospect of losing such a highly-rated gem, but it’s not at all uncommon in football for clubs to seek out players in their mid-teens to join their academy ranks.
Indeed, Chelsea have a long track record of snapping up precocious talents, many of whom are duly shipped out on a series of loans without ever getting a real opportunity to establish themselves at Stamford Bridge.
Regarding Ngumoha, their loss now looks set to be Liverpool’s gain. Juding by the rave reviews that the 15-year-old has attracted since the news broke yesterday, the Reds could be about to acquire a very special prodigy indeed.
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