Early deal: Liverpool drop Thursday morning transfer announcement amid Rio Ngumoha question

Liverpool Football Club have now confirmed James Norris has completed a permanent move to Irish outfit Shelbourne.

This follows prior reporting on the 22-year-old’s future (along with that of James McConnell and Owen Beck).

The left-back has already featured 11 times (734 minutes) for Joey O’Brien’s men, registering one assist in a Europa League qualifying clash against HNK Rijeka.

James Norris completes transfer to Shelbourne FC

Liverpool’s official X (formerly Twitter) account confirmed the news in question on Thursday morning amid a successful loan spell with Shelbourne.

James Norris has completed a permanent transfer to Shelbourne.

Everyone at Liverpool FC wishes James the best of luck for the future

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 1, 2026

This comes at a time when both James McConnell and Owen Beck are expected to have their own loans cut short.

The former has found minutes hard to come by, despite initially impressing Arne Slot in European competition earlier this year.

Meanwhile, his 23-year-old fellow Merseysider has found opportunities significantly curtailed by injury (most recently a hamstring injury and subsequent surgery).

Other questions for Liverpool: Rio Ngumoha?

Rio Ngumoha has perhaps been a little unfortunate, given that minutes have undeniably been curtailed by Liverpool’s poor domestic form in 2025/26.

That said, there’s the argument to be made that the club also shouldn’t be putting greater pressure on the teenager at this stage in his development.

As Arne Slot fairly noted: “I think he has the most minutes of all 17-year-olds in the Premier League. So that tells you how much playing time he gets, how special that already is for a 17-year-old.

“That also tells you something about his quality, because it’s not completely normal for a 17-year-old already to have as much playing time as he had.”

On that basis, it’s hard to imagine Liverpool sanctioning a loan spell for Ngumoha to make up for “missed” minutes.

Ultimately, it has to be emphasised that, frightening talent aside, the young winger shouldn’t be expected to rack up serious senior minutes this early into his Anfield career.

* Rio Ngumoha’s stats for Liverpool (in all competitions) in the 2025/26 campaign (Transfermarkt)

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The post Early deal: Liverpool drop Thursday morning transfer announcement amid Rio Ngumoha question appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.