FORMER READING MIDFIELDER and ex-Ireland U21 international Liam Kelly has joined League One Oxford United on loan from Dutch giants Feyenoord, the English club have confirmed.
Kelly, who turned 24 in November, was brought to the Netherlands last summer by then-Feyenoord manager Jaap Stam who had managed the playmaker at Reading.
However, Stam’s departure from the Rotterdam-based club in October would lead to Kelly’s Dutch stint coming to a premature end as he fell out of favour under new boss Dick Advocaat.
Kelly’s situation had also been monitored by League One Sunderland, but it was Oxford — less than an hour away from both Reading and Kelly’s hometown of Basingstoke — who won the race to sign him on loan until the end of the season.
“I remember him playing against us at MK Dons when he was really young and just starting out and he was sensational,” said Oxford boss Karl Robinson. “I kept an eye on his development under Jaap Stam and he did really well in a side that reached the play-offs in the Championship that year.
For someone like Jaap to take him to Feyenoord tells you plenty about him and when the opportunity came about to bring him here I confess I was shocked.
“He is one of Rob Dickie’s best mates and Rob has been telling me for a while just how good Liam is: he played with Shandon, Tariqe, Jamie Mackie and James Henry at Reading so they all know him as a person as well as a player and geographically it’s right for him so we are thrilled to have him here.”
Kelly’s international allegiance has previously been the source of some contention, with then-Ireland manager Martin O’Neill publicly claiming the midfielder was holding out hope for a future England call-up in spring 2018 after Kelly declined to join the Boys in Green for an away friendly with Turkey.
Kelly, who qualifies for Ireland through two grandparents from Mayo and Galway, later dismissed O’Neill’s claims, explaining: “It had nothing to do with feeling English or Irish. It was a personal thing between me and my family which we thought was best.
“There are no ifs and buts about it, it was just how I was feeling at the time. We will see how it goes in the future.”
Upon joining Feyenoord last summer, Kelly told Dutch football magazine Voetbal International that lining out for Ireland at senior level would be “a great honour”.
He made just two first-team appearances for Feyenoord following three seasons at Reading in which he played 94 times and scored nine goals.
