‘I'm buzzing, I'm really happy to be here' – Caoimhín Kelleher signs five-year deal with Brentford
Ireland goalkeeper claims leaving Liverpool wasn't 'very difficult' as Cork club Ringmahon Rangers set for record €3m windfall from move
Caoimhín Kelleher says it was an easy decision to quit Liverpool and move to Premier League rivals Brentford as he was eager to secure first team football on a regular basis.
The Cork native today ended his long association with the Anfield club as he agreed on a five-year deal, costing the Bees a reported fee of €21million, with his schoolboy club Ringmahon Rangers set to earn a €3m cut of the deal.
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The sports ministry acted, they said, out of fear for 'the risk of disaffection between our national team and the Senegalese in general.' Advertisement The president of the Senegalese FA said he was 'very sad' to see Cissé leave, and spoke plainly of their opposition to the political decision. 'The agenda of the government is not the same as the agenda of football,' Augustin Senghor told BBC Sport Africa. 'They decided and, unfortunately, we could not oppose it.' Cissé has been replaced by a former assistant, Pape Thiaw, and it is his job to squeeze the last drops out of Senegal's medal-winning generation, including Mane, centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, and midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye. They are buttressed by a younger generation of talent, which includes Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson, Tottenham's Pape Sarr, and Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara. Senegal are in a battle even to make the next World Cup, sitting second in their group, a point behind leaders DR Congo, though with a points total currently good enough to make the play-offs. They remain unbeaten, with three wins and three draws from six matches, and their primary problem has been goalscoring: they have eight goals thus far, though four of them came in a single game against South Sudan and they have dropped points in goalless draws against Togo and Sudan. They are, however, unbeaten in their last 22 matches, save a penalty shootout loss to Ivory Coast in the last-16 of the 2023 Afcon. In fact, a 1-0 loss to Algeria in a friendly in September 2023 is their only defeat since the World Cup exit to England, stretching across 26 games. Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson is anticipating the kind of stiff test to ready his side for the World Cup qualifier matches with Portugal later this year. 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'It's a different kind of opponent, they are looking for spaces behind us and it doesn't happen that often in Europe, normally there are a few passes before the teams play behind us but that's one of the things we need to look at and improve.' It's fair to say Hallgrimsson does not share the same disapproving opinion of the Senegalese sports ministry.
