Fair enough, but my point stands, I think. Is he miles better than Kelleher? I doubt it. Could he be? Possibly yes, possibly no. But with competent #2 who’s a little disgruntled, but not monumentally so, who has a huge amount of 1st team ball, you’re going to replace him with firstly a keeper who doesn’t appear to be better Mamardashvili and then with a younger keeper who definitely is not better (not now), but has good potential? And all this merry-go-round stuff is going to cost the club £7-10m (difference between Mamardashvili‘s buying and Kelleher’s selling prices)? There's obviously something we are all missing, because as it’s playing out, there’s a lot missing.
Rating GKs is hard, but its also good to refreshen the squad, so perhaps that is thinking. I expect Kelleher would be looking to move regardless as how long does he sit as a #2. He 25 and has played 62 first team games, including internationals. At some point he needs to go prove it over an entire season or 2. Mamardasville is 2 years younger and has double the appearances, so there is just a better data set from which to assess him. Regardless of the outcome, we seem to be set for awhile when it comes to keeper.
Everything I've read/heard about Mamardashvili is that he has the potential to be Alisson/Oblak class. He was just nominated for the Yahsin award. Those that are paid to know these things all think he's the real deal. We'll see how it plays out, but as far as Jaros as #2, he's shown at least as much as Kelleher had when he was made #2, so it all makes sense to me. Sell Kelleher to fund a new number 1 who continues to develop while we see where things go with Alisson and promote the next in line from the academy to #2 who already has a track record of winning things at a decent level. Seems like good business/planning to me.
I disagree, but there you go. I don’t really see the sense in upsetting the status quo for a gain that’s dependent on potential coming to fruition that even then doesn’t necessarily get you hugely further down the road.
The only one we heard about was from Forest and it was a joke. If we did another bid closer to our valuation- happy to be proven wrong @SamScouse
I don’t think Kelleher was fine. He intimated in his interview he’s been saying this to LFC for awhile now. I do agree signing Mamardashvili hastened his desire to leave. if we get a good bid in January, I think we’d sell and I’m ok with that. Again, I do trust Jaros to be a top deputy for an oft injured Allison.
Only way the Mamardashvili transfer makes sense is if they think he is a significant upgrade on Kelleher. I'm going to assume he is based on the clubs recent track record. Only other way this makes sense is if making money on transfers has officially super ceded winning trophies. Hopefully not.
The only midfields in the world who could be better than ours are madrid, barca, and citeh. At most, we're seeing these teams 5 teams throughout the course of a 65 game season. Keeping a 'destroyer' around for the 5 matches a year that we may actually need one is a bit ridiculous.
It comes down to this, just based on these two sentences about two players' career arcs with no affiliation attached, which player are you choosing? A lifelong #2 with 47 first team appearances to his name, who has never even gone on loan, who will be 27 by the time he finally gets a chance to be a #1. Or a 23 year old who has been a lifelong #1 and has already made 154 first team appearances for his clubs. If Kelleher wasn't currently on our roster, would we be signing him? Probably not.
I think perhaps you are looking to closely at "how good" the respective keepers may or may not be right now. It could just be that Kelleher is unfortunately a few years too old and a few years too far along. We may intend to stick with Allisson for at least another 2 or 3 years? Which is no good for Kelleher but could work for Mamardashvili or Jaros.
Re: the purchase of Mamardashvili and what to do with Kelleher. I think, as has already been pointed out, that because Kelleher has been jockeying for more playing time but he is obviously not going to supplant Alisson in the near-term future there is a need to generate a viable long-term solution. While Kelleher is a good keeper, I don't think he is at the level of Alisson, and at this point it is very likely he will never be at that level. Of course, one could always be wrong about this, but given current and past performance Kelleher will always be behind Alisson. My bet is that Mamardashvili is viewed as a good bet with a lot more potential growth in ability in the future. Plus he's probably close to as good as Kelleher (at least in a statistical analysis) right now, and willing to wait a couple of years to replace Alisson while Kelleher has indicated he's not. So the thought is that you buy Mamardashvili now for a relatively low price, betting that he improves enough in the intervening years that he replaces Alisson as he ages out, or moves on to another club in 2-3 years. The Mamardashvili purchase essentially pays for itself if you are able to move Kelleher to another club for a reasonable transfer fee, you have comparable backup starting next year, and potentially someone who can realistically replace Alisson in the future. Seems to be a logical strategy if it works out...
You nailed it. Kelleher was great for us when called upon - but there are flaws in his game that we tend to ignore. We also overrate him as well. The other teams haven't - yet - come in with the offers that would equate to a top tier (or top 25 keeper in the world) - that's a little bit telling as well.
We paid 30m for Marmadashvili who is by all accounts the replacement for Alli . I think most potential buyers will assume he's better than Kellerher so I doubt we'll see any offers close to 30 m . Next summer with only one year left on his deal we'll get even less for Kell . I think he's a terrific keeper and some team is going to get him for peanuts.
Newcastle somehow paid 20m for Forest's 3rd or 4th choice keeper, why they wouldn't have paid 20m for Kelleher is beyond me.
Nowadays clubs have to have an eye on PSR compliance. Perhaps Forest didn't have much 'wiggle room '.
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Rio Ngumoha The footwork here is world class Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni will be our next Yamal and Musiala 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3CK5vd6NVP— Caoimhin Kelleher FC (@anfieldlad10) September 4, 2024 Liverpool youngster can emulate Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala (anfieldwatch.co.uk)
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