Emile Heskey has backed Rio Ngumoha to leave Liverpool for Bayern Munich, but first make a lasting impact at Anfield. The Bundesliga giants were credited with an interest in the exciting winger this past summer but no deal ever advanced, with Liverpool keen to keep him.
Ngumoha's season so far
Ngumoha has made three starts this season and played 232 minutes under Andoni Iraola. That is despite Cody Gakpo, Victor Munoz and £123million summer signing Bradley Barcola wanting to play on his preferred left side.
His bright start to the campaign was rewarded with a senior call-up for England, though he was left out the squad that faced Spain. Injury problems saw him named on the bench against the Czech Republic and he was brought on with 20 minutes to play.
Heskey's Bayern advice
Jude Bellingham came on at the same time as Ngumoha and Heskey is of the belief seeing him and Harry Kane thrive in Germany will tempt Ngumoha to take a similar path in due course.
He told Rekatochklart.com: "There will always be temptation when clubs like Arsenal are coming around, and especially Bayern.
"The reason I say Bayern is because Rio will be looking at Kane, he'll be looking at Olise and he'll be looking at Jude and Jobe Bellingham's going over to Germany and doing well, and you can't not do well at Bayern."
"So there will be that sort of temptation, but as a young lad you always wanna try and do well first where you are before you actually start branching out. So I do believe that he'll want to stake his claim and really cement himself at Liverpool first and then move on.
"Rio could definitely be a star in the Premier League, and the funny thing is he'll be looking, alongside all these young lads at the next international tournament which is the Euros and he's 18. The next Euros is what, 2 years away, am I right?
"He'll be at a ripe age to be breaking into the national team, being a mainstay, but he needs to do it at club level and I do feel he's got the ability to do that."
"He's a fantastic dribbler but now he's really got to be looking at his end product in terms of goals, assists and his contribution to the team."
Looking ahead
Ngumoha is yet to grab a direct goal contribution this season with Barcola and Gakpo appearing as Iraola's favoured partnership out wide as he has been an unused substitute in two of Liverpool's last three Premier League games.
With Liverpool having six games across three competitions in the remainder of October, Ngumoha will almost certainly feature in league games against Manchester City, Brentford and Brighton.
The former clash has seen some spice added to it following City's financial charges guilty verdict. That process is far from over, though, with the club planning to appeal against the decision.
