Caoimhín Kelleher GK Brentford b.1998

[Snapshot]

Where did I say Klopp thinks Kelleher is elite. Said I doubt he has doubts about Kelleher because otherwise he wouldn't be the number two with his lack of experience at one of the best clubs the last few seasons. He's a good number two for Liverpool and could make it as a Premier League keeper but Alisson is the best keeper in the world.

My question was rhetorical. It was obvious my opinion was Klopp should not sell Alisson, though I wouldn't label the idea idiotic. I'm in the camp that Kelleher (the 24-year-old kid) is unproven at regular EPL level. I believe that to be Klopp's view too.

In third policeman's post (#994), his Anfield Wrap contributor is relaxed with the "idiotic" selling-Alisson suggestion. I'm sure there are others too - those with lofty opinions of Kelleher, others with green-tinted bifocals. Or both.

[third policeman]

My question was rhetorical. It was obvious my opinion was Klopp should not sell Alisson, though I wouldn't label the idea idiotic. I'm in the camp that Kelleher (the 24-year-old kid) is unproven at regular EPL level. I believe that to be Klopp's view too.

In third policeman's post (#994), his Anfield Wrap contributor is relaxed with the "idiotic" selling-Alisson suggestion. I'm sure there are others too - those with lofty opinions of Kelleher, others with green-tinted bifocals. Or both.

For the avoidance of doubt the Anfield Contributor isn’t wearing green-tinted bifocals, and I took the comment to be more a judgement on Kelleher’s performance and ability, than a considered contribution to a debate about LFC transfer policy. It was a counterpoint to the suggestion that LFC fans have ‘heart in mouth’ moments every time the ball is in close proximity to Kelleher.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

Who cares about Liverpool supporters or any other club? What matters is the development of our players. Kelleher has received some top class coaching and would have learned a lot from Allison. I think it's time to move on in the summer but I wouldn't be over critical of the choice to stay at Liverpool up to this point. He may not have made a huge amount of appearances but he has gained some great experience and experiences in other ways. Bazunu and Kelleher will be battling for the Ireland number 1 jersey for the next 15 years!

[seanfhear]

Exception for Allison ~ Klopp does not have a great record with goalkeepers at Liverpool ~ I don’t know about Klopp’s goalkeeping record at Dortmund.

[Snapshot]

For the avoidance of doubt the Anfield Contributor isn’t wearing green-tinted bifocals, and I took the comment to be more a judgement on Kelleher’s performance and ability, than a considered contribution to a debate about LFC transfer policy. It was a counterpoint to the suggestion that LFC fans have ‘heart in mouth’ moments every time the ball is in close proximity to Kelleher.
I've taken out a full-page advertisement in the Liverpool Echo tomorrow with a grovelling mea culpa to the offended, the traumatised and those otherwise mentally dishevelled by my outrageous assertion that the kid Caoimhin is anything less than they believe him to be.

[Jd2793]

Who cares about Liverpool supporters or any other club? What matters is the development of our players. Kelleher has received some top class coaching and would have learned a lot from Allison. I think it's time to move on in the summer but I wouldn't be over critical of the choice to stay at Liverpool up to this point. He may not have made a huge amount of appearances but he has gained some great experience and experiences in other ways. Bazunu and Kelleher will be battling for the Ireland number 1 jersey for the next 15 years!


spot on

[seanfhear]

We wouldn't like to see Allison get injured ( honestly ) but sometimes that's just the type of chance that a player needs.

[Eirambler]

Wasn't it Leno getting injured for Arsenal that changes the course of Emi Martinez's career? Martinez got a run in the team that led to his Villa move and everything else followed on from that.

Something niggly and hard to diagnose for Alisson would be good. But not just yet since the transfer window is still open.

[third policeman]

I've taken out a full-page advertisement in the Liverpool Echo tomorrow with a grovelling mea culpa to the offended, the traumatised and those otherwise mentally dishevelled by my outrageous assertion that the kid Caoimhin is anything less than they believe him to be.

Did you ever see the Father Ted episode with the sarcastic priest, and where he ended up? Let that me a warning to you,

[pineapple stu]

If Post of the Month was still going, it'd be over :p

[texidub]

Snapshot, that was a na gCopaleen-esque artwork of a response to Third Policeman. Between the two of you, I think foot.ie may be entering a literary singularity worthy of The Brother's brother himself.

Kelleher needs more regular rough and tumble. He's protected by his number 2 status and further protected by the high standard of the players in front of him. Is he some fragile golden child? Or the real deal? Impossible to say. Bazunu is in front of him for the keeper's slot in my mind - my only doubt being that maybe international football doesn't have as much rough and tumble so that aspect may be moot.

[Jd2793]

| Liverpool could look to sell Caoimhin Kelleher to free up funds to use in the transfer market. [@JamesPearceLFC (https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC)
]

he'll be out in the summer

[SkStu]

Everything I’ve read on it sounds like it’s a Liverpool decision v a CK decision too.

[Jd2793]

NEW: Caoimhin Kelleher is a contender to leave Liverpool due to his desire to play more regularly and the fact that there are not many avenues to raise significant amounts of money from selling players on the fringes of the squad. #lfc (https://twitter.com/hashtag/lfc?src=hashtag_click) [james pearce - the athletic]


Yep sounds like its something that both parties could want come june.

[Stuttgart88]

"Contender to leave" makes it sound like it's some kind of competition to get out. I know they're having a bad season but they're not Everton.

[seanfhear]

If he does go up for sale ~ It will be very interesting to see how much the market will value, a relatively in-experienced goalkeeper at ?

[ColourfulPeanut]

Danny Ward moved to Leicester after 2 Liverpool league appearences and 4 Wales caps. He cost £12.5mil. Caoimhin is almost exactly the same age as him, less experienced but probably higher rated.

I reckon his market caps at £15mil. Most of the people here saying £25-£30mil probably laughed at Ward's price and they're pretty much a like-for-like comparison.

[Jd2793]

Danny Ward moved to Leicester after 2 Liverpool league appearences and 4 Wales caps. He cost £12.5mil. Caoimhin is almost exactly the same age as him, less experienced but probably higher rated.

I reckon his market caps at £15mil. Most of the people here saying £25-£30mil probably laughed at Ward's price and they're pretty much a like-for-like comparison.

15+addons seems reasonable to me also cant see liverpool selling for anything less than they got for ward (who has proven to be absolutely terrible since leaving) as they are looking to fund transfers in summer

[pineapple stu]

Angus Gunn (£13.5m from Man City to Southampton in 2018 - 22 and one season on loan at Norwich) is another one in that region. (And he didn't work out either of course...)

[Eirambler]

Gunn and Ward both had full season loan before they were sold, unlike Kelleher. Very hard to think of another example like him, someone who is as old as he is, as highly rated as he appears to be, but has played so little football at the same time.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, it's not a direct comparison for sure, but then Kelleher does have Champions League experience which Ward and Gunn didn't have.

Anyway, the amount doesn't matter from our point of view - though can understand Liverpool looking to cash in on the bench if their midfield is suddenly old and useless. Getting a move to a club where he can start is the important part, whether for a fiver or for Neymar money.

[nigel-harps1954]

Ward had nearly 80 senior appearances, and six Europa League appearances for Aberdeen on loan before his move, so it's probably an unfair comparison.

If Liverpool are offered £15m, that'll be the height of it.

[seanfhear]

Lets say you are the buyer ~ If it works at £15 million ~ Great buy / Genius.

if it doesn't ~ How the hell could that manager pay that sort of money with so little game time, etc etc etc.

[elatedscum]

The issue for Liverpool is, they’ll never be able to replace him with as good a keeper. They’ll keep him for as long as he’s prepared to stay.

My guess is, if the right club comes along, he’ll leave in the summer. I suspect he’s hoping for a mid table premier league side - let’s imagine Crystal Palace.

He’s been really unfortunate in that Alisson’s two injuries have coincided with him being injured. The fact that Adrian the third keeper has more appearances than him speaks volumes.

I’d say Liverpool are looking for £25m - they’re generally pretty good at getting what they want from academy transfers -

See

£15m for Jordon Ibe
£12.5m for Danny Ward
£19m for Dom Solanke
£24m for Rhian Brewster
£13.5m for Kijana Hoever
£17m for Neco Williams
£17.5m for Taiwo Awoniyi
£12m for Harry Wilson
£11m for Marko Grujic

Even fringe squad guys like Danny Ings being sold for £25m

Throw transfer fee inflation into those deals and you get there. I’d be very surprised if he went for less than £20m

I will say this caveat to us Ireland fans. I think Caomhin is really good. Every time I watch him play, he’s really calm, good with his feet and a good shot stopper. When he plays for Ireland, the same. Allison is probably the best keeper in the world - both the advanced metrics and the eye tests agree. The quality of training to keep Alisson at that level must be superb. The goalkeeping coaching must be excellent. There’s two possibilities when CK leaves Liverpool, 1) he thrives with more game time 2) his game suffers with inferior coaching, preparation, facilities, medical staff etc etc

But I don’t think it’s a guarantee that moving to a first team slot will make him a better goalkeeper because across the 29 games for Liverpool and Ireland, he’s already established that he’s an excellent keeper - someone who I’d have no fear about playing…

[Jd2793]

games vs kairat and shkendija or cup games v arsenal and chelsea? i think its easy to see what PL clubs would look at. theres video for kelleher with ireland going back to 2017, there are data scientists and video analysts at every pl club now who'll be able to look at his body of work underage and his 20 odd senior games to see what they are getting.

i get the feeling its a lot easier for some lads on here to say he'll go for 5 mil as all hes done is "sit on his arse" for 4 years. fact is he is homegrown with senior international experience, that alone will keep his value up. along with the fact he was behind allison who is one of the best in the world

[liamoo11]

Ward had nearly 80 senior appearances, and six Europa League appearances for Aberdeen on loan before his move, so it's probably an unfair comparison.

If Liverpool are offered £15m, that'll be the height of it.

Kelleher is a far superior keeper to Danny ward

[ontheotherhand]

Liverpool clearly rate him so you'd assume they'd include a buy back or are they that desperate to add as much transfer money to their kitty as possible?

I was hoping he'd just be going on loan for a season or three so he'd still have some access to the same coaches similar to the way Bazunu kept in touch with City during his loans.

[nigel-harps1954]

Kelleher is a far superior keeper to Danny ward

I didn't say either was better than the other.

[ColourfulPeanut]

Kelleher is a far superior keeper to Danny ward
Based on what evidence though? He's barely played to know what he's like. We know Ward is poor now because he's had a run at starting in the Premier League. We have no idea what Caoimhin would be like in a Leicester team.

[Bungle]

Kelleher is a very good goalkeeper. I actually think that with his attributes he is potentially world class but we will only see that for sure, when he does play week in week out.

Liverpool and their fans love him. Problem for him is that he is behind Alisson who is probably the best keeper in the world. I could see him leaving this summer with Liverpool inserting a buyback option. Another option is that he is used as a sweetener to clubs and is taken on a 1-2 year loan deal - say they want Bellingham they could bring down the price a little by giving Dortmund a long-term loan on him. He is playing at a really high level, Liverpool are getting their future number 1battle ready and Dortmund are getting an outstanding keeper. Win win win for all parties.

[Razors left peg]

Being reported online that he will leave Liverpool in the summer. Not sure of how accurate the sources are but great news if true.

What level of club do we think will come in for him?

https://twitter.com/reptracker/status/1633550569666142210?s=20

[elatedscum]

Totally unreliable source (Jacque Talbot):

“In terms of the aforementioned outgoings. Those earmarked for a probable move include Caoimhin Kelleher, Konstantinos Tsimikas, Joel Matip and Nat Phillips, who is currently being watched by Hertha Berlin. The Bundesliga side tried to sign him on loan on Deadline Day but Jurgen Klopp pulled the plug at the last minute.”

It’s basic stuff. They’ve got 6 squad members who are out of contract (Firmino, Keita, Ox, Milner, Adrian, Arthur). Liverpool are going to need a lot of money to sign the lads they want to come in to replace them. So there’s a relatively small pool of non-essential players they could sell. On the other hand, they’d need to spend a lot to replace Kelleher and he is homegrown which is a big advantage to Liverpool.

If I was guessing what would happen, I’d say Spurs sign Martinez and Kelleher goes to Villa for £20-25m

[Razors left peg]

I do think his reputation is enough to get him a move to top division somewhere. Villa would be interesting.

Id love to see him on the continent, whether its Germany, Spain, France or even Portugal.

[CraftyToePoke]

Depends on who stays up too I guess, its a bit of a meat raffle from Palace down ( who haven't won this year and are surely worth a small punt to drop, pure freefall there ). Leicester will buy a keeper, because theirs is having an awful season, but they bought him from the Liverpool reserves for about twelve million so there might be a bit of won't fool me twice going on there. Villa would be a great move, probably as good as he could currently get in the UK

[nigel-harps1954]

Adrian on the bench for Liverpool today, no sign of Kelleher.

[elatedscum]

Likely an injury just in time for the international break making the whole debate moot

[elatedscum]

Ian Doyle: One change with Bajcetic in for Henderson. Kelleher missed training earlier in the week and is replaced by Adrian on the bench.

[Asterix]

Seems to get injured a lot.

[seanfhear]

Kelleher does seem a bit fragile. At least he gets plenty of time to recover.

[Razors left peg]

Has recovered from the injury to be on bench vs Real today so should be ok to be in squad.

[joey B]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11933937/Liverpool-targeting-new-goalkeeper-compete-Allison-summer.html

Liverpool seeking a replacement for Kelleher….

Be interesting to see where he ends up now,someone like Leicester could be a good option ….

[JR89]

Brentford will likely need to replace David Raya and they also strike me as someone that would take a punt on Kelleher. Think the Palace number one is about 36 and out of contract in the summer but has a year option. Someone like that could also see him as a long term number one.

[Olé Olé]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11933937/Liverpool-targeting-new-goalkeeper-compete-Allison-summer.html

Liverpool seeking a replacement for Kelleher….

Be interesting to see where he ends up now,someone like Leicester could be a good option ….

They over paid Liverpool for Danny Ward already. Imagine what Liverpool would ask for for Kelleher..

He won't be short of offers anyway. Top flight in the big 5.

[weldoninhio]

I can't see a top flight club taking a punt on a completely unproven reserve goalkeeper as their number 1. Maybe a promoted club? Other than that I think he'll have to go down a level or go continental if he wants to be a guaranteed starter.

[Razors left peg]

Villa were mentioned to me a while back by someone because they'll probably sell Martinez. I think that would be by far the best case scenario for Kelleher, but it might be a stretch. I don't rate him as highly as some others on here but I am very curious to see where he ends up and how he will do playing week in week out. I have a suspicion he might break down injured a fair bit with the intensity of regular football. It's purely speculation but he has a thin frame and already gets injured more than you'd like.

He has been fairly high profile in big cup games for Liverpool so there is a chance of a big club like Villa. It'll be an interesting summer

[zero]

Villa were mentioned to me a while back by someone because they'll probably sell Martinez. I think that would be by far the best case scenario for Kelleher, but it might be a stretch. I don't rate him as highly as some others on here but I am very curious to see where he ends up and how he will do playing week in week out. I have a suspicion he might break down injured a fair bit with the intensity of regular football. It's purely speculation but he has a thin frame and already gets injured more than you'd like.

He has been fairly high profile in big cup games for Liverpool so there is a chance of a big club like Villa. It'll be an interesting summer

Spurs are the other club I've seen mentioned as Lloris is 36 and Forster 35 so they'll certainly be looking for a new keeper. Really depends on who they get in as manager though I'd say.

The inner jury is very much still out on Kelleher. Liverpool fans were convinced Danny Ward was brilliant and only didn't get in because Allison was so amazing. We simply haven't seen enough of Kelleher to make an informed judgement - something which will affect his fee.

[third policeman]

Sorry I don't recall Liverpool fans ever waxing lyrical about Ward unless you can direct me to the evidence. It's weird but there is a very sharp discrepancy of views between LFC fans and a particular faction on this site with respect to Kelleher. Still struggling to understand why but I guess until he is performing well regularly at a PL level, some people will remain sceptical.

[elatedscum]

Liverpool fans were convinced Danny Ward was brilliant and only didn't get in because Allison was so amazing.

Ward and Alisson didn't overlap.

Ward was third choice behind Karius and Mignolet. The summer they signed Alisson, they sold Ward to Leicester. Ward never even progressed to second choice. Admittedly the difference between Mignolet, Karius and Ward wasn't that huge.

[ifk101]

It's weird but there is a very sharp discrepancy of views between LFC fans and a particular faction on this site with respect to Kelleher. Still struggling to understand why ....

Did a quick skim of a Liverpool forum about Kelleher, and there is broad agreement he needs to be playing to improve his lot as Alisson is firmly number 1. So, while there are complementary comments about Kelleher, there are more about him in the context of being a good back-up keeper for Alisson. And isn’t that the same as comments posted here? Complementary but acknowledgement he needs to be playing to be number 1.

[third policeman]

I think there is a difference. The predominant sentiment on LFC forums is that he needs (as in deserves) to be playing more regularly for the sake of his career. There’s generally an acknowledgment that he is a very capable keeper. I’d be surprised if you found much actual criticism of his performances. This is slightly different to the views of some on this forum. They may also say be needs to play more regularly but this is generally in a more critical context that questions his ability and his credentials as an international keeper, “Needs” in this context has a different and more critical emphasis.