KICKSTART CAREERS WITH MID-SEASON SWITCHES
January moves are crucial for Boys in Green quartet
for a club like Bournemouth or Southampton, especially if that appearance is a Wembley Cup final where you end up as the hero, or a redhot tussle against Manchester City, Chelsea or Arsenal (Kelleher has had five of those).
Some players never get to taste Champions League football in their career, Kelleher has been in and around that scene for five years, albeit mainly as a back-up, just two of his 20 Liverpool games coming in that competition.
Leaving Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool means leaving that stage, that crowd, that proximity to the big time.
It represents a risk. But to stay much longer is a bigger risk.
A footballer’s career has to revolve around what you do on the pitch rather than the bench and the last thing Kelleher wants to become is the fiancee who waits forever to walk up the aisle before getting dumped at the altar. It’s time to go.
IT HAS been 13 years, two weeks and 319 matches since Shane Duffy made his professional debut.
Only one year since, the 2010/11 season, has he played fewer games than he has managed this season.
At 31, he isn’t finished. But his international career will be as good as over if he doesn’t get back playing first-team football.
If that means a blow to his ego and his bank balance, then so be it.
CENTRE-FORWARDS are like singers and actors. The egos tend to be a little bigger, the confidence a tad more fragile.
But like all good performers, they’re worth indulging.
Obafemi needs to know the manager rates him almost as highly as he rates himself.
Vincent Kompany, the Burnley boss, appears to be that person and there’s a valid reason for that because the 22-year old has something special.
Talent
You only had to be in Lansdowne Road last June, when he impersonated Andrea Pirlo with one pass, and then Bobby Charlton with a 30-yard shot, to appreciate the depth of his talent.
His credentials are enhanced further by the stats from his club career, a return of 21 goals from 47 starts.
It’s time this actor got to perform in front of a bigger audience. The Premier League awaits. He can take Burnley there. They just need to take a punt on him.