Lewis Koumas says he is not really too sure what comes next at Liverpool after Arne Slot was sacked over the weekend, leaving the 19-year-old to wait on whether his name still figures in the club’s plans. The Wales winger finished the season on loan at Hull City, where he helped them win promotion to the Premier League at Wembley Stadium.
The timing matters because Koumas is away with Wales this week for friendlies against Ghana and Romania, and he has 10 caps already at a stage of his career where every run of games is being measured. For now, the questions around Liverpool are bigger than anything he can answer himself.
Koumas has spent much of the last two seasons away from Anfield, with loan spells at Birmingham City, Stoke City and then Hull. That run of moves has given him the kind of minutes young players often struggle to get at Liverpool, and he said he is really happy with how he has developed over the last couple of years.
At Hull, he gave a sharp reminder of what he can offer. He scored a late winner on his debut at Blackburn Rovers, then added another in a 4-2 win over Derby County and the decisive second goal in a 2-1 victory at Wrexham. The loan ended with something more important than any one goal: promotion, and a dressing room he described as one of a kind.
That is the part that gives Koumas hope. He said he has gone out on loan, shown what he can do and scored some goals, and he believes those performances may have been noticed. But he also made clear that the decision over what happens next is not in his hands, a familiar position for a player still trying to turn promise into a permanent place.
What comes next is now the point that matters. Wales will take up his attention first, but Liverpool’s next step after Slot’s departure will decide whether Koumas returns to compete for a first-team role or has to wait for another move to keep building his case.
