Caoimhín Kelleher shares Stephen Kenny’s belief that he can push on to play at the highest level but accepts that he cannot expect to break into a side like Liverpool’s without getting some serious game time under his belt and hopes there might be an opportunity to leave Anfield on loan early in the new year.
Kenny expressed disappointment over the weekend that a proposed move to the Netherlands for the 21-year-old had been pulled a couple of months back after Jurgen Klopp’s first choice goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, picked up an injury and the Irishman was required to stick around as cover.
Kelleher made a handful of appearances for the club in cup competitions last season but recognises that a more substantial breakthrough is still some way off. He is confident, though, that he can make it.
“Yeah, it’s definitely something I believe,” he says. “I wouldn’t stay at Liverpool if I didn’t believe that, to be honest. It’s something I can see myself doing in the future, on both fronts (club and international), so I keep pushing myself, keep trying to improve and hopefully when the opportunity does come for me then, I’ll be ready and able to impress.
“I know the standard required at a club like Liverpool where it’s the best players in the world and I am not there at the moment but I am still quite young in goalkeeping terms and I believe that in a few years I can get to that level but game time is a factor.
“I’m not going to play at Liverpool until I get regular game time, I can’t do that until then so yeah, I want to get out and play first team football, try and impress as much as I can then come back and push on.
“You need to be patient, though. The injury (to Alisson) didn’t come at a good time for me but it’s just something I have to deal with. Hopefully I can just keep pushing myself in training, keep trying to improve and wait for the next opportunity.
“If January comes and I get out, that’s great. And if I don’t get out, I’m not going to blow up. I’ll look towards summer and the next opportunity. We’ll see what happens.”
In the meantime, he says, working with Alisson and the club’s other goalkeepers is helping his development and he is happy to have the opportunity to be a part of the Ireland squad and to remind Kenny of the progress he is making.
“Obviously it’s a big help,” he says. “If you are training with the best goalkeeper every day you are going to pick up stuff and improve yourself. It has done me no harm just to be able to learn off him, watch him in games, watch what he does in training, and be there with him.
“And these international weeks are good for me to show the manager and the staff that if something happens to Darren (Randolph) there is an opportunity there for me and I am ready to take it, so it’s a good opportunity every time I come in.”
