Jurgen Klopp has already urged £35m Chelsea transfer target to quit Liverpool

Caoimhin Kelleher has made no secret of his desire to play for the first team, and even former boss Jurgen Klopp has recommended he leave Liverpool.

The 25-year-old Republic of Ireland international is highly rated at Anfield and has impressed on a number of occasions when replacing Alisson, including this season where he has kept four clean sheets in eight games. However, he has yet to oust the Brazilian for good, and that is unlikely.

Fortunately for Kelleher, he has no shortage of admirers who would grant him regular football elsewhere. And he is ready to leave Anfield for good after the Reds completed a deal to sign Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili next summer.

Chelsea are the latest club to show an interest in the Irishman, with The Sun reporting that Liverpool's Premier League rivals are willing to pay £35 million to acquire his services.

A move to a top six club would certainly appeal to Kelleher, whose preference would be to remain in the Premier League. However, it remains to be seen whether Liverpool will sell to a rival.

While new head coach Arne Slot has shown his hand in some respects by signing Mamardashvili as Alisson's. Long-term successor Kelleher also struggled for playing time under Klopp.

The German may not have hesitated to donate blood to Kelleher if Alisson was unavailable, but he made no secret of the fact that the latter was his number one. But he also never really indicated that he would approve of Kelleher's departure.

However, it appears Klopp has had a change of heart in his final months at Anfield, judging by comments Kelleher made earlier this year.

He says Klopp urged him to look for regular football elsewhere, explaining: “He had some nice words for me. I was with him for a number of years and he said, 'You've become a brilliant goalkeeper in that time.' He will follow my career wherever I go. He wants to see me play and be happy.

“The season I had, I played a lot of games and this season I had the taste of a number one. Whether that's at Liverpool or elsewhere remains to be seen. My main focus right now is to become number one.”