It’s going to be the most interesting of summers at Liverpool, given that the Arne Slot era begins in earnest.
There’s likely to be both a sense of excitement and one of trepidation from the Anfield faithful.
Losing Jurgen Klopp and his inate sense of how to connect to his adoring public whilst playing a brilliant brand of winning football, is going to take some getting used to.
Arne Slot faces losing Liverpool reserve keeper Caoimhin Kelleher
However, Slot has been hugely successful in the Eredivisie and the test for him will be to see if he’s able to translate that into the Premier League.
Before a ball is even kicked in earnest, the Dutchman will live or die by the transfer decisions he makes.
If there’s another thing that underscored Klopp’s time at the club, it was that, along with his recruitment team, the German rarely got a transfer wrong.
Not every one worked out of course, but in the main, the club can be pleased with their transfer business over the past few years.
One player that seemingly doesn’t want to hang around to experience ‘Arne-ball’ is reserve goalkeeper, Caoimhin Kelleher.
The 25-year-old has long been an understudy to Alisson Becker, and has clearly decided that the time has now come for him to spread his wings – or in his case those long arms – and try a new experience elsewhere.
According to the Liverpool ECHO, Celtic remain one of the favourites to sign the custodian, though Brentford and a number of other clubs are also credited with an interest.
Were Kelleher to be allowed to leave, it would mean a gaping hole in the goalkeeping area at Liverpool, and arguably means that a new reserve keeper will need to be foremost in Slot’s mind.
As much as it would be nice to have Kelleher in Paradise where he belongs, and while he will never play for a bigger club, the reality is when you are dealing with clubs who throw mobey around like its Monopoly money, we can’t afford a guy like this.
If we pay the ludicrous transfer fee, we can never match his salary demands. If we match his salary demands, we could never pay the transfer fee! We can’t be naive enough to let all of our resources go on one or two players!
If we want to strengthen, we need to consider more than a single marquee signing. Those days are gone. You need to consider that we will likely lose and have to replace at least one other player, possibly O’Riley. First team regulars need to be replaced when they move on. That costs money in transfers and salaries.