AFTER SUNDAY’S CARABAO Cup final, Caoimhín Kelleher’s stock has risen yet higher.
The Ireland international started the Wembley showpiece in the Liverpool goal against Chelsea, keeping a clean sheet over 120 minutes before the drama of the penalty shoot-out.
And Kelleher was the spot kick hero for the Reds – though not as he might have imagined beforehand — as he kicked what was, ultimately, the winning penalty.
So what now for the Cork native? Bide his time at Anfield behind one of the world’s best goalkeepers, Alisson Becker? Or, like his Boys in Green rival, Gavin Bazunu, strike out from the Premier League’s elite in search of game-time and experience?
“There is no way on earth that Stephen Kenny is going to drop Gavin Bazunu and start Caoimhín Kelleher based on what Caoimhín Kelleher did at the weekend,” Shane Keegan argued on this week’s episode of The Football Family, the member-supported podcast from The42.
“It was absolutely brilliant what he did [on Sunday] but the fella who’s going to be wearing the Irish jersey is the fella who’s playing football week-in-week-out and obviously for the rest of this season that’s going to be Gavin Bazunu.
“I wouldn’t be hitting the eject button too quickly if I was Kelleher. Does he look to get out next season for a period of time? I think that will be interesting. What level would he come in at? Obviously, Liverpool would be reluctant to loan him to another Premier League side.
“I do think he needs to get a run of games next season. I don’t think we can be having this conversation in 12 months’ time where he has played maybe half a dozen [competitive] games.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp described 23-year-old Kelleher as ‘the best number-two goalie in the world’ after Sunday’s victory in north London. The Ringmahon Rangers graduate will now have to decide if he’s happy to remain as a stand-in for the foreseeable future, albeit at one of the world’s top clubs.
“He seems to be a very, very clued-in sort of fella,” continued Shane Keegan in conversation with Gavin Cooney and David Sneyd.
“And it really, really does depend on where his own head is at. And the other thing it depends on is what are the other options.
“I mean, he could be sitting at Liverpool and thinking, yep, I’m absolutely quite happy here. I’m more than comfortable with the current situation. And the next thing, word comes through that a team that are in the championship that are battling to win the title, are battling to come up in the play-offs and a team with a manager that he fancies and maybe there’s one or two Irish heads there or something like that.
“And all of a sudden he thinks ‘that definitely appeals to me’. And his mindset shifts towards it. I don’t think he’s going to be beating down Klopp’s door demanding a move, by any stretch of the imagination, but at the same time, I’m not sure.”
