It’s a bit silly to let someone as good and well-fitting as Kelleher go elsewhere when Alli has rather persistent injury issues and Mamardashvili will probably need time to get used to the league. One could say that for all his quietly consistent contributions so far, Kelleher DESERVES to be given a chance to stake his claim at the #1 shirt at LFC - and since we’ve already made our choice to sign Mamardashvili, it’s Alli who might be the sacrificed, as crazy as it sounds. It’s not a straightforward case to make for selling the best GK in the world, but I think there is a case to be made:
1. Alli’s injury issues are not letting up and are likely to become worse with age. There is a significant risk when one of your most highly paid players is injury-prone, as we’ve learned with Thiago and others.
2. Financially, selling Alisson and removing his salary from the books makes more sense than selling Kelleher who is still weirdly undervalued by the league. In any other position, replacing an older star with an (almost) as good younger player is just the natural order of things and we’re lucky that in this case we don’t have to pay a premium for youth.
3. It’s possible that a straight competition between Mamardadhvili and Kelleher is the best way of integrating the former into the team and the league. Mamardashvili had this situation in Valencia (initially arriving as a back-up) and thrived - it will be much harder to get consistent playing time and improve his game when Alli is present.
4. Obviously Alli is an LFC legend and deserves all kinds of respect. But a new challenge might not be such a bad thing for him either. Bayern might be looking for a Neuer replacement soon or maybe Barca will want to replace Ter Stegen - there are lots of great clubs that will need him and appeal to him. It feels scary to think of a future without Alli, given how many shit GKs we’ve endured over the years, but it’s a lot less scary if we can keep Kelleher who we know is good enough even if for some reason Mamardashvili doesn’t work out.
Thoughts?
1. Alli’s injury issues are not letting up and are likely to become worse with age. There is a significant risk when one of your most highly paid players is injury-prone, as we’ve learned with Thiago and others.
2. Financially, selling Alisson and removing his salary from the books makes more sense than selling Kelleher who is still weirdly undervalued by the league. In any other position, replacing an older star with an (almost) as good younger player is just the natural order of things and we’re lucky that in this case we don’t have to pay a premium for youth.
3. It’s possible that a straight competition between Mamardadhvili and Kelleher is the best way of integrating the former into the team and the league. Mamardashvili had this situation in Valencia (initially arriving as a back-up) and thrived - it will be much harder to get consistent playing time and improve his game when Alli is present.
4. Obviously Alli is an LFC legend and deserves all kinds of respect. But a new challenge might not be such a bad thing for him either. Bayern might be looking for a Neuer replacement soon or maybe Barca will want to replace Ter Stegen - there are lots of great clubs that will need him and appeal to him. It feels scary to think of a future without Alli, given how many shit GKs we’ve endured over the years, but it’s a lot less scary if we can keep Kelleher who we know is good enough even if for some reason Mamardashvili doesn’t work out.
Thoughts?
