Celtic eye Kelly as Rodgers puts Fir Park keeper on hit-list of summer transfer targets
By EXCLUSIVE BY STEPHEN MCGOWAN
Celtic have placed Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly — who started his career at Rangers — on a list of summer transfer targets.
Former England No1 Joe Hart will retire from professional football after the Scottish Cup final, while Swiss keeper Benjamin Siegrist is also likely to leave in search of first-team football.
Out of contract this summer, Scotland international Kelly is in the frame to win a place in Steve Clarke’s squad for Euro 2024.
Well known to Celtic and former Scotland goalkeeper coach Stevie Woods, the 28-year-old comes without a fee and would bolster the number of homegrown players available for Europe.
Kelly made his Scotland senior debut in a friendly defeat to France in October. Starting his career with Rangers, he moved on to play for Livingston and QPR.
With interest from down south, a return to English football has not been ruled out if Brendan Rodgers looks elsewhere.
Liam Kelly, who has been a regular in Scotland squads of late, is out of contract in the summer
Celtic, meanwhile, have hired former South American talent spotter Mark Cooper in a revamp of the club’s scouting set-up.
Head of player recruitment Mark Lawwell, son of Celtic chairman Peter, and chief scout Joe Dudgeon left the Parkhead club to ‘pursue new challenges’ in a clear-out of the recruitment department in March.
Previously based in South America, Cooper went on to work in MLS, but the Scot has now been lured back to Glasgow in a full-time role. Highly rated by manager Rodgers, Cooper has been set the task of improving the standard of first-team recruitment.
Targeting players aged between 19 and 23, with international experience and fitting certain financial criteria, Celtic’s hit rate came under scrutiny after a number of the club’s summer signings failed to hit the ground running at first-team level.
Of the dozen new captures brought in over the last two transfer windows, Nicolas Kuhn was the only starter in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Hearts.
Expected to strengthen in a number of key positions this summer, goalkeeper, the left side of defence, midfield and attack are priority areas and Cooper has already set to work on drawing up a list of players likely to make an impact.
As part of the backroom restructure, Celtic recently confirmed former B team coach Darren O’Dea as Professional Player Pathway Manager with the task of developing the progress of young players at Lennoxtown.
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