Caoimhín Kelleher GK Brentford b.1998

[seanfhear]

One of those goals where you could say that a lot of players were partially responsible for conceding it, A matter of debate as to who was most responsible.

Sometimes with Collins there seems to be a little bit of the John Stones about him i.e. That he loses concentration for short periods of time !

https://streamin.me/v/1952115a

[Eirambler]

What a player he's developing into. We could easily have been three or four down but for him. I think we all expected Kelleher v Bazunu to be a career long battle (and for a long time I thought Bazunu would win it), but he's now as nailed on a number 1 as Packie Bonner or Shay Given were.

[liamoo11]

What a player he's developing into. We could easily have been three or four down but for him. I think we all expected Kelleher v Bazunu to be a career long battle (and for a long time I thought Bazunu would win it), but he's now as nailed on a number 1 as Packie Bonner or Shay Given were.

Fantastic brings such a sense of calm

[Jolly Red Giant]

What a player he's developing into. We could easily have been three or four down but for him. I think we all expected Kelleher v Bazunu to be a career long battle (and for a long time I thought Bazunu would win it), but he's now as nailed on a number 1 as Packie Bonner or Shay Given were.
Bazunu is playing well this season too - but yes - Kelleher is ahead of him by a distance now. Kelleher is 3 years older and Bazunu lost a year with the injury - but both are still developing and I think both will eventually become top PL keepers.

As I have argued before - we are blessed to have such high-quality goalkeepers at our disposal - and that includes Travers and O'Leary - and we still have Keeley and Cahill waiting in the wings (its gas that Bazunu is only a year older than Keeley and two older than Cahill).

We currently have three top goalkeepers who are probably better than anything we have had in the past (with the possible exception of Given and Tommy Farquharson - I would argue that they are probably better than Given. Farquharson played in a different era in the 1930s so it is much harder to compare).

[Trequartista20]

Totally agree. It's such a high level in England now. Incomparably stronger than in, eg, Given's time.

Bazunu/Kelleher are such talented footballers. Probably the best of what we've produced in multiple decades.

[irishfan86]

As a pure shot stopper, Given was on a different planet to Kelleher. Could Given play in the Prem these days given the distribution expectations? I think it’s an interesting conversation. But Given was one of the best pure shot stoppers in Premier League history and I’d happily have him at his peak for Ireland over any other option.

[Eirambler]

I'd say Given could have been quite good with the ball at his feet if keepers had been coached to play that way back then. But it wasn't the done thing obviously. The issue with Given was always his height (or more specifically his lack of height).

[Stuttgart88]

Guardiola seems to thing dealing with crosses is now more important than being good with your feet!

[Kingdom]

Fantastic brings such a sense of calm

I think we witnessed Kells develop into a leader on Saturday - yourself an Eirambler are correct in your obs, but just to add to this, Caoimhín brought urgency too when it was required, getting the ball out to a free man - the correct free man - every single time in that 2nd half.

[seanfhear]

It could be said that both of Hungary's goals came from crosses. One a cross from a corner ( one direct from a corner but still a cross ), and the first goal was the second phase after a cross. Just observing.

The cross is not dead yet !

[SkStu]

I think we witnessed Kells develop into a leader on Saturday - yourself an Eirambler are correct in your obs, but just to add to this, Caoimhín brought urgency too when it was required, getting the ball out to a free man - the correct free man - every single time in that 2nd half.

Noticed the same thing Kingers.

While I’m here, I just checked out the highlights again from the Senegal friendly that Tets posted in the subforum and there’s a save that Kelleher makes from a header where he tips it - tippy fingers - onto the cross bar. I had forgotten it until I saw it again there but it was an absolutely outstanding save. Outrageous. He was excellent overall in that second half actually. Worth checking out if any of youse have forgotten about it like I did.

[Kingdom]

There's one aspect of his - is body mechanics the right term all you coaching experts? - saving technique that can optically draw reservations: on some goals he concedes, when diving, it looks like he never actually jumps; in that he is extending into a save while his toes are touching the ground, rather than launching/leaping into an extended save.

[seanfhear]

Kelleher made some good saves the other night, fair play to him.

[Stuttgart88]

Imho, the best was the one late in the first half when he cut out the diagonal through ball after Doherty's slip. Neither of his two second half saves was remarkable in itself in its degree of difficulty but Jesus did we need him to make them. As said above, the key was that he can be trusted to make good saves at important times and just generally exudes authority and calmness. If, for example, he spilled the low shot he caught in the second half it'd probably have cost us a goal. Instead he caught it without any fuss at all.

[elatedscum]

What a player he's developing into. We could easily have been three or four down but for him. I think we all expected Kelleher v Bazunu to be a career long battle (and for a long time I thought Bazunu would win it), but he's now as nailed on a number 1 as Packie Bonner or Shay Given were.

if i look back a few years to say 2021, i honestly think Kelleher is exactly where I thought he'd be now. a well above average Premier League keeper and a standout internationally. I do think he still has another level to jump.

Bazunu on the otherhand is miles behind where I expected him to be. When you look back to 2021 where he was starting for Ireland and putting in MOTM performances at age 19 and when you looked at his development from age 17 to 19 - he seemed on the trajectory to become one of the best goalkeepers in europe by age 25. I really think the Southampton move was a mistake. Kelleher under the tutelage of John Achtemberg, Claudia Taffarel (what a keeper he was) and Fabian Otte and working day in, day out with Allison Becker, he really improved as a keeper. In his early years as second choice, he was very vulnerable when it came to crosses, he was easily bullied, he flapped at things and occasionally spilled stuff, more frequently than you'd want. it was a major weakness in his game. it's been entirely wiped out and i feel all the minor flaws in his game i could see have been worked out over the years on the training ground in that elite environment, working with the best and facing the world's best strikers (Salah etc.)

I don't know Southampton's coaching staff but I don't think Bazunu has improved at all since he left City (and Portsmouth). He's been very unlucky with that injury but the same issues he had at 19 with his handling and decision making are still there. He had confidence issues which had never been an issue before. He's always had absolutely elite reactions and has been really quick across the ground for a keeper. You'd worry that he'd ever so slightly lose those things with his body filling out, the injuries (achilles and knee) and natural ageing (I read a few years ago that in general reaction times decrease from age 23 onwards). So it's really imperative that he improves elsewhere as you would have expected him to in the last 4 years.

I wonder is it just a toxic environment for him where the fans are sceptical of him and he can't win them over and would a clean break help him? I still think there's a top keeper in there and 23 is still young for a keeper. United have just spent £23m for a keeper who is the same age as Bazunu and has only played in the Belgian league to make him their number 1. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if Bazunu was a better keeper than him. Also shows what a bargain Caomhin was. I don't think anyone should write of Gavin but it's been a tough few years. Travers is probably where I'd expect him to be in terms of performances but not in terms of career progression. He's a very capable keeper, better than a bunch of Prem keepers and I'm not sure what signing for Everton to be back-up to Pickford really does for his career and what's the long term plan. I'm hoping Pickford gets a long ban for something (he's deserved a few over the years) and Travers takes the jersey and runs with it.

[Eirambler]

Travers can only have signed for the money at Everton, there's no way they'll ever drop Pickford and if they did the English football media would relentlessly go after Travers like they did with Raya when he took Ramsdale's spot at Arsenal - but Raya is a much better keeper than Travers.

I don't actually think Travers is EPL standard, he sits too deep and is limited on the ball. Would be very close to being the best keeper in the Championship though if he has gone back there instead of to Everton.

[Jolly Red Giant]

if i look back a few years to say 2021, i honestly think Kelleher is exactly where I thought he'd be now. a well above average Premier League keeper and a standout internationally. I do think he still has another level to jump.


Bazunu on the otherhand is miles behind where I expected him to be. When you look back to 2021 where he was starting for Ireland and putting in MOTM performances at age 19 and when you looked at his development from age 17 to 19 - he seemed on the trajectory to become one of the best goalkeepers in europe by age 25. I really think the Southampton move was a mistake. Kelleher under the tutelage of John Achtemberg, Claudia Taffarel (what a keeper he was) and Fabian Otte and working day in, day out with Allison Becker, he really improved as a keeper. In his early years as second choice, he was very vulnerable when it came to crosses, he was easily bullied, he flapped at things and occasionally spilled stuff, more frequently than you'd want. it was a major weakness in his game. it's been entirely wiped out and i feel all the minor flaws in his game i could see have been worked out over the years on the training ground in that elite environment, working with the best and facing the world's best strikers (Salah etc.)


I don't know Southampton's coaching staff but I don't think Bazunu has improved at all since he left City (and Portsmouth). He's been very unlucky with that injury but the same issues he had at 19 with his handling and decision making are still there. He had confidence issues which had never been an issue before. He's always had absolutely elite reactions and has been really quick across the ground for a keeper. You'd worry that he'd ever so slightly lose those things with his body filling out, the injuries (achilles and knee) and natural ageing (I read a few years ago that in general reaction times decrease from age 23 onwards). So it's really imperative that he improves elsewhere as you would have expected him to in the last 4 years.


I wonder is it just a toxic environment for him where the fans are sceptical of him and he can't win them over and would a clean break help him? I still think there's a top keeper in there and 23 is still young for a keeper. United have just spent £23m for a keeper who is the same age as Bazunu and has only played in the Belgian league to make him their number 1. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if Bazunu was a better keeper than him. Also shows what a bargain Caomhin was. I don't think anyone should write of Gavin but it's been a tough few years. Travers is probably where I'd expect him to be in terms of performances but not in terms of career progression. He's a very capable keeper, better than a bunch of Prem keepers and I'm not sure what signing for Everton to be back-up to Pickford really does for his career and what's the long term plan. I'm hoping Pickford gets a long ban for something (he's deserved a few over the years) and Travers takes the jersey and runs with it.


1. There is absolutely no doubt that the move to Southampton was a massive mistake - but that is with the benefit of hindsight. When it happened I felt it was a perfect landing spot for him. Hasenhüttl had a big reputation and was doing well at Southampton, until the board panicked in November 2022 and sacked him - replacing him with a donkey Nathan Jones (who proceeded to lose 8 of the next 10 games) - and then only getting 3 points from the last 12 games of the season. It was a disaster for Bazunu - when teams are winning the strikers get the praise - when they lose the goalkeeper is blamed. The following season Bazunu suffered from a manager that didn't play defence and he was constantly exposed by the defenders in front of him. Russell Martin (and the two guys before him) did nothing to help Bazunu's development.
2. The injury was catastrophic - and I suspect that Bazunu is still suffering the effects. That injury generally happens with older players and when it happens to a young player (especially a goalkeeper) there is a major chance of it reoccuring and ending a career. Along with the knock to his confidence to play - the injury had halted his development for a considerable period of time and I suspect that Bazunu still has not got full confidence back in his ability to ignore the potential for reinjury.
3. Southampton would not have got promoted without the job Bazunu did in the six months before his injury - despite the team placing no emphasis on defending, Bazunu bailed them out in numerous games.
4. Bazunu has been playing well this season so far - the jury is still out on if Will Still is up to the job - but I expect Bazunu to end the season as one of the top, if not the top, goalkeeper in the Championship.
5. The kid is only 23 and has had a very disrupted last three years - he has plenty of time to improve.
6. Despite all this - even now he is still one of the best goalkeepers that Ireland have ever had.


Travers can only have signed for the money at Everton, there's no way they'll ever drop Pickford and if they did the English football media would relentlessly go after Travers like they did with Raya when he took Ramsdale's spot at Arsenal - but Raya is a much better keeper than Travers.

I don't actually think Travers is EPL standard, he sits too deep and is limited on the ball. Would be very close to being the best keeper in the Championship though if he has gone back there instead of to Everton.
Travers doubled his wages by going to Everton - the money he'll get at Everton will set himself and his family up for a comfortable life by the time he is thirty. And even if he is a back-up in the PL - he is still one of only a handful of Irish keepers who will have played most of his career in the top division in England (and the standard is far higher today than in years gone by) - Darren Randolph played 11 years in the PL and had a total of 35 games over all those years (and won 50 caps) - Travers is nearly on a par in terms of games and has 4 caps for Ireland (and is unlikely to get many more).

[culloty82]

Not sure whether the penalty save owed more to Kelleher, or Fernandes having to wait four minutes, but he did what he had to against Man United after Collins made the initial foul.

[pineapple stu]

I think there's a definite correlation between delays on penalties and a decreased success rate, but a penalty save is still a penalty save.

Made up for not exactly covering himself with glory for Sesko's goal, even if it did give him the chance to pull off two decent saves before the ball went in

[joey B]

Clean sheet this evening,I think I could have kept a clean sheet against that West Ham team though…

[rebelmusic]

I feel this man deserves a thread bump after the campaign. While Parrot deserves a ton of credit, we wouldn't be in the playoffs without Caomhin. I've been in a panic since Lisbon that he'd get a second yellow and miss a match.

We've said for ages that we're spoiled for choices in this position but in truth we're not, it's now a massive step down to the next keeper in the squad.

[Eirambler]

Our player of the campaign in terms of consistency of performance across all six games. He has developed into an exceptional keeper, genuinely one of the best around.

With the benefit of hindsight it does make you wonder if Bazunu should have stayed at Man City to learn his craft as a backup keeper for another couple of years. It's very hard to argue that the Southampton move has seen him develop his game at all, despite the amount of first team football he has played relative to Kelleher.

[backstothewall]

I would think it unlikely he will still be at Brentford this time next season. He's a Champions League quality goalkeeper.

[Kingdom]

I think we witnessed Kells develop into a leader on Saturday - yourself an Eirambler are correct in your obs, but just to add to this, Caoimhín brought urgency too when it was required, getting the ball out to a free man - the correct free man - every single time in that 2nd half.

I can only reiterate this point - the man is a frucking legend.


There's one aspect of his - is body mechanics the right term all you coaching experts? - saving technique that can optically draw reservations: on some goals he concedes, when diving, it looks like he never actually jumps; in that he is extending into a save while his toes are touching the ground, rather than launching/leaping into an extended save.

But equally, watching his dive for Barnabas' shot, all I could think of was "please just launch yourself Caoimhín".

[Kingdom]

I would think it unlikely he will still be at Brentford this time next season. He's a Champions League quality goalkeeper.

Hard to know. He's not rash - there's patience there as we've seen by how long he remained at Liverpool and I'm still a little surprised he left tbh.

He's not going to City, Arsenal or Liverpool in terms of an English CL club. He ain't going to Newcastle or Villa in terms of a potential CL club, so that only leaves Spurs in England.
Taking a leap abroad...it's hard to know what options would be open to him which he would want to pursue.

[tetsujin1979]

He went from the long ball into the box, to celebrating the goal, to back in goal to claim the ball, and then dribbling out of the box because he was an extra player on that side of the pitch

[SkStu]

He went from the long ball into the box, to celebrating the goal, to back in goal to claim the ball, and then dribbling out of the box because he was an extra player on that side of the pitch

thats a great shout out, Tets. I did think to myself - in the frantic emotional state i was in - that it was a bit genius of him to do that.

[elatedscum]

I would think it unlikely he will still be at Brentford this time next season. He's a Champions League quality goalkeeper.

i wouldn't be surprised if he goes back to Liverpool in 18 months as first choice. That's the remainder of Alisson's contract and from what we've seen so far Caoimhin is a better keeper than Mamardashvili. Liverpool generally have a buyback clause inserted that can be optioned after 24 and 36 months for about double the transfer fee they sold for.

[Kingdom]

thats a great shout out, Tets. I did think to myself - in the frantic emotional state i was in - that it was a bit genius of him to do that.

Can someone explain this part to me please.

[backstothewall]

Hard to know. He's not rash - there's patience there as we've seen by how long he remained at Liverpool and I'm still a little surprised he left tbh.

He's not going to City, Arsenal or Liverpool in terms of an English CL club. He ain't going to Newcastle or Villa in terms of a potential CL club, so that only leaves Spurs in England.
Taking a leap abroad...it's hard to know what options would be open to him which he would want to pursue.

I wouldn't be just so quick to rule out Villa. There is something weird going on with Emi Martinez there, and he would be an able replacement.

[The Fly]

His club career is still in its early stages, but that said I’m certain he’s the best keeper we’ve had in my time following the side (from 1990 on).

[tetsujin1979]

Can someone explain this part to me please. right at the very end of the game, Kelleher claimed the ball from a cross, then he dribbled out of the box and down the right hand side of the pitch, towards the half way line. Every Hungarian player was marking an Irish outfield player, essentially leaving him as an extra outfield player. It was a calculated risk, if he lost the ball, we had nobody in goals, but equally the Hungarian players couldn't risk closing him down and leaving another player free for him to pass to, and at this stage they know how good his passing is.
It was really intelligent play, used up a few more seconds, and the final whistle came just after he released the ball.

[Fixer82]

His club career is still in its early stages, but that said I’m certain he’s the best keeper we’ve had in my time following the side (from 1990 on).

Not sure he’s proven he’s as good as Given yet.
Perhaps he is or will be.
He’s definitely better with ball at feet but that’s the modern keeper.

Thinking of Given’s big performances against France, Russia, Iran

[rebelmusic]

I watched a documentary on the 2002 qualifying campaign and Given was the unsung hero in that. In fairness for pure shot stopping you'd have them on a par at least but the ceiling for Kelleher is much higher

[pineapple stu]

I think Kelleher gets more chance to show off in the current team too. Some really great stops this campaign. Given didn't have quite as many chances to impress!

[rebelmusic]

I think Kelleher gets more chance to show off in the current team too. Some really great stops this campaign. Given didn't have quite as many chances to impress!

This is a very fair statement. Although Gary Breen left some howler runs behind him back in the day 😂

[Kingdom]

I think Kelleher gets more chance to show off in the current team too. Some really great stops this campaign. Given didn't have quite as many chances to impress!

Au contraire mon ami! Ali Karimi still wakes up screaming Given's name !

[Eirambler]

Turns 27 today. Hard to believe that a player this good has played fewer than 100 club games in his career by his 27th birthday. Hopefully he will play on a bit later into his 30s and will be a regular starter wherever he goes from here on out.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Not sure he’s proven he’s as good as Given yet.
Perhaps he is or will be.
He’s definitely better with ball at feet but that’s the modern keeper.

Thinking of Given’s big performances against France, Russia, Iran
The footballing era makes direct comparisons difficult - for example, never any mention about how good a goalkeeper Tom Farquharson was in the 1920s and 1930s. Even Given in his prime played in an era pre mega money in the PL - so it is hard to know where he would place in the current PL (I certainly think he was good enough to be current PL standard - there are probably half a dozen clubs where he would be an upgrade).