Before, during and after Liverpool’s Carabao Cup triumph against Chelsea on Sunday, there was a lot of talk about the injuries Jurgen Klopp’s side had to deal with.
Many names were missing for that showpiece event, including Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Trent Alexander-Arnold, to name a few.
But one name that hardly got a mention was Alisson Becker and that’s because of Celtic-linked Caoimhin Kelleher.
Sources have told HITC Football that, with Celtic’s number one Joe Hart to retire at the end of the season, the domestic Treble winners of Scotland are now targeting Liverpool’s back-up stopper.
Playing for a club like Celtic would be some move for a goalkeeper like Caoimhin Kelleher, but Stephen Warnock can’t see it happening.
The former left-back thinks the 25-year-old is ‘quite happy’ with his role at Anfield, even if he is playing second fiddle to Alisson Becker, as he told The Football Show on Sky Sports.
Of course, Liverpool will have a new manager in the dugout next season, so you just don’t know what road that will lead Caoimhin Kelleher to.
Should Caoimhin Kelleher leave Liverpool?
“That’s the big question, there has been a lot of talk about. Does he need to go and play first-team football?” said Warnock.
“I think he is quite happy with the situation because Alisson has had his fair share of injuries. He knows he has got the trust of Jurgen Klopp, that will change in the summer because Liverpool will have a new manager.
“But he is getting games. There was a lot of talk about Salah being out, Nunez being out, but there was never talk of ‘Liverpool don’t have Alisson’. They don’t have arguably one of the best goalkeepers in world football. There was never any talk of that because Kelleher played anyway, but people are very comfortable with him as the number two. Some of the saves he made were outstanding.”
Caoimhin Kelleher is good enough to be number one
Understandably, playing for a club like Liverpool is hard to turn away from, but Kelleher needs to look at his long-term future.
Whether it’s at Celtic Park, or someone else in the Premier League, it’s now high time he made that step up and took his career to the next level.
The Irishman would do that at a club like Celtic where there is immense pressure and also Champions League football on offer.
Plus, with Hart now set to hang up his gloves, Brendan Rodgers needs that player who can take over for the coming years and you feel Kelleher ticks those boxes.
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