Richard Hughes' £18m transfer GAMBLE pays off

It’s all coming together nicely for Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes.

The executive got new contracts over the line for Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah before their previous deals expired in summer 2025. Both are secured until 2027 - setting the standards at Anfield for the years ahead.

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He also brought in a reported £8.4m for Trent Alexander-Arnold - rather than losing the England man on a free transfer to Real Madrid.

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Hughes struck an opportunistic agreement with Bayer Leverkusen for Jeremie Frimpong and he is currently locked in talks with the same club over Florian Wirtz.

Liverpool haven’t been flashy in the market under the new sporting director up to now - but landing Wirtz would be a game-changer.

Richard Hughes pockets up to £18m for Kelleher

The Scot has been winning over the doubters since his appointment - and don’t forget one of his first tasks was landing Arne Slot.

Liverpool have won the Premier League on the back of that appointment - and Hughes has certainly got more right than he has wrong so far throughout his tenure.

The club have sold well - including getting a cash deal for Alexander-Arnold when he had no intention of signing a new contract. Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho were sold to Brentford last summer for a combined total of over £50m.

And Hughes has repeated the trick - getting up to £18m for reserve goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.

The 26-year-old only had one year left on his deal and has featured in fewer than 70 first-team games throughout six seasons at the club.

He moves for a fee which could put him inside the top 10 for most expensive goalkeepers transferred between Premier League clubs.

Kelleher grows over the course of the season

That is a solid return on a goalkeeper who joined as a youth aged 15 and leaves behind Alisson Becker and Giorgi Mamardashvili in the pecking order.

It’s true Liverpool might have banked more than that last summer but no offer reached what Hughes and the club deemed to be fair value. The terms of the deal have changed now of course - with Kelleher only 12 months away from being a free agent.

But keeping Kelleher at the club is a transfer gamble which paid off.

He played 20 times in all competitions for the Reds last season - making excellent contributions in the Premier League and Champions League and even had backing from several voices to replace Alisson on a regular basis.

The Ireland international grew as a goalkeeper over the course of the last 12 months - becoming a commanding figure and demonstrating exactly why he deserves to be a No1 somewhere.

Kelleher a difference-maker in title win

Would Liverpool have been as successful this season with a less capable deputy? It’s impossible to say but Arne Slot barely missed Alisson during his injury absences thanks to Kelleher.

The goalkeeper department at Anfield is set for a big shakeup this summer with Mamardashvili coming in from Valencia. He will go toe to toe with Alisson for the starting gloves and there was never going to be room for another excellent shotstopper in Kelleher.

If he is too good to be a No2, then he is definitely too good to be a No3.

Hughes looks like he played the situation really well in difficult circumstances. He stuck to his guns over Kelleher’s valuation and that decision certainly helped Liverpool win the league.

Now he’s bolstered the coffers - with a sum that could cover more than half of the Mamardashvili fee through the sale of a third-choice goalkeeper who cost practically nothing.

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That’s good business and evidence once again that the Reds have got a very capable sporting director in charge.