Liverpool's Transfer Decisions: Ngumoha Stays, Gakpo's Future in Doubt

Liverpool are digging in over Rio Ngumoha. Cody Gakpo, it seems, is ready to walk away.

In a summer that was supposed to be about fine‑tuning under a new head coach, the transfer narrative around Anfield is already far more dramatic than that. Bayern Munich have circled, Tottenham Hotspur are plotting, and Liverpool’s hierarchy are being forced into sharp, early decisions about the shape of their attack.

Liverpool slam door on Ngumoha exit

Bayern’s interest in Rio Ngumoha is real. The German champions want a new left‑winger and see the 17‑year‑old as a perfect long-term solution, a high‑ceiling talent who fits their strategy of grabbing elite youngsters before their price explodes.

For a time, they might have sensed an opening.

When Liverpool brought Ngumoha in from Chelsea in 2024, there was an openness to a creative arrangement: a potential sale to a European club with an option attached, while the teenager cut his teeth with the under‑18s and under‑21s. That was the plan.

His performances ripped that plan up.

TEAMtalk’s transfer insider Graeme Bailey reports that Liverpool now have no intention of selling Ngumoha in this window. The Secret Scout has echoed that stance, adding detail to the internal shift: what began as a flexible, development‑first signing has turned into a hard line. The club, sources say, now regard him as a player who could grow into “one of the best wingers in the world”.

That kind of language changes everything. So does the price.

Any deal, Liverpool now believe, would require a “huge” fee. In other words, Bayern and any other heavyweight suitor are being warned: this is not an opportunistic raid on a Premier League academy. This is a battle for a cornerstone of Liverpool’s future.

Talks over a new contract are planned. The message from Anfield is clear – Ngumoha is no longer a trading chip. He’s part of the project.

Gakpo unsettled as Spurs circle

If Ngumoha is the future, Cody Gakpo suddenly feels like a question.

According to Dutch outlet Soccer News, the Netherlands international “wishes to leave” Liverpool. The trigger, the report claims, is the decision by Fenway Sports Group to sack Arne Slot before he had even truly begun and move instead for Andoni Iraola.

Gakpo, who arrived as a marquee attacking signing, now finds himself facing another reset, another tactical reboot, another manager to impress. Tottenham are watching closely.

Spurs, the report says, have “serious interest” in the winger and are already working behind the scenes on a plan to convince both player and club. For a Tottenham side still reshaping their frontline under Ange Postecoglou, Gakpo offers versatility, Premier League experience and age on his side.

For Liverpool, his potential departure would create a very different kind of problem. Lose Gakpo, protect Ngumoha, and the balance of the forward line shifts again. One established international possibly out, one teenage prodigy being ring‑fenced. It is a bold bet on where the goals and creativity of the next era will come from.

Iraola’s midfield rebuild: Alex Scott in the frame

The upheaval is not confined to the wings. With Andoni Iraola preparing to take charge on a two‑year deal, Liverpool’s midfield is set for another overhaul.

Bournemouth’s Alex Scott is high on the list. Journalist Jamie Dickenson reports that Liverpool are weighing up a £40 million bid for the 22‑year‑old, a player Iraola knows intimately from their time together on the south coast.

Bournemouth value Scott at around £60m, a price that reflects his status as their standout midfielder and his rapid rise into England contention. He is currently in Miami with Thomas Tuchel’s England squad and is expected to make his Three Lions debut in a friendly against New Zealand, fresh off a superb campaign for Bournemouth.

Scott to Liverpool would be a reunion as much as a transfer. He would walk into a dressing room led by a coach who already trusts him, already understands where to place him in a pressing structure, already knows how to squeeze maximum intensity out of his game. For a club still digesting the impact of a £415m outlay last summer on the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and others, that kind of certainty holds value.

Liverpool’s interest is not uncontested. Manchester United are monitoring the situation. Tottenham, the club Scott supported as a boy, are also keeping tabs. The midfielder’s next step, then, will say plenty about which project convinces him most.

A new hierarchy in the making

Beyond Scott, Liverpool are also credited with interest in £100m‑rated RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande, another sign that the club are not shying away from big numbers or big reputations. Yet Iraola’s brief is brutally simple: extract far more from what is already in the building.

The potential sale of Gakpo, the protection of Ngumoha, the pursuit of Scott – all of it feeds into one central question. What does the next Liverpool attack and midfield actually look like under Iraola, and who gets to lead it?

Anfield has chosen its side with Rio Ngumoha. The teenager stays, the bar is set sky‑high, and any bidder is told to come armed with a fortune.

Cody Gakpo, Tottenham, Alex Scott and the rest of Europe’s heavyweights now have to decide how far they are willing to go to reshape the rest of that picture.