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15th January 2024
03:54pm GMT
Liverpool may be willing to entertain offers for Ireland goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher, this summer, after reportedly identifying his replacement in the Championship.
The Mirror is reporting that Liverpool have been scouting 23-year-old Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson to add to their senior squad. The England U21 international has been around the Black Cats' squad since 2018 but did not make his first-team debut until November 2020.
Patterson had a loan spell at Notts County, in 2021/22, but has become a regular in the Sunderland team since early 2022 and has now reached 100 appearances for the club. He is under contract at the Stadium of Light until 2026 and grew up as a Sunderland fan, but the opportunity to join Liverpool may tempt him away.
Kelleher has played more times for Liverpool this season (11) than in his previous five campaigns on Merseyside. A high point with the club was his penalty shoot-out heroics in the League Cup final, in 2022. With Liverpool in the Europa League, he has started five times in that competition as Jürgen Klopp gives squad players extra game time.
Brentford, Tottenham and Celtic were three interested clubs, regarding Kelleher, last summer but Klopp retained the goalkeeper's services. Alisson Becker is the undoubted No.1 for the Reds so the 25-year-old may be tempted to test the market. The Spurs move did not materialise as Kelleher was given no guarantees on being No.1 at the start of the season.
The Mirror report states that Liverpool would be looking for a fee in the region for Kelleher, who has 11 caps for Ireland. Klopp has described him as "exceptional" but the time may be fast approaching to let him take the next big step in his career.
Elsewhere in the wild and wonderful January transfer window, Anthony Martial has three options for the remainder of his season [and time] at Manchester United.
The France international can either A) see out the season and pick up the odd game with United, B) totter away in training see out his contract, C) try prove to potential summer suitors that he still has an interest in playing football. West Ham, Inter Milan and Fenerbahce are all reported to be interest in taking a swing on him for the rest of the season, when he should become a free agent.
West Ham may have Martial as a consolation prize if they miss out on their main January target - Stuttgart striker Serhou Guirassy. The Guinea international is having a career season, aged 27, and Stuttgart may choose to cash in while the going is good.
Guirassy has bounced between Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga for the past nine seasons and has been steady without ever attracting the interest of really big clubs. That has all changed, this season. He has scored 20 goals in 17 games [for club and country] and helped Stuttgart to third in the Bundesliga standings.
West Ham had been linked with a £15m move for Guirassy but AC Milan, Newcastle and now Manchester United have all been linked with possible swoops. That could be genuine interest, or it could be an agent/club trying to drive up the price of their player. Time will tell.
Manchester United also appeared in the biggest piece of transfer tittle-tattle, over the weekend. Karim Benzema missed an Al-Ittihad training session and was subsequently excluded from the club's warm weather training camp [odd that such a camp is needed - it is 28 degrees in Saudi Arabia, as we type].
Those occurrences, paired with Louis Saha recently telling a gambling company that Benzema would be a good loan option for United saw some weekend reports of a sensational short-term deal. File that one in 'U' for unlikely, but Erik ten Hag would surely love a proven goal-scoring option, even for a few months on loan.
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