Brentford complete Kelleher capture after selling Flekken
Caoimhin Kelleher will replace Mark Flekken between the sticks for Brentford, having arrived from Liverpool in a deal rising to £18million.
Brentford have completed an £18million move for Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher after selling Mark Flekken to Bayer Leverkusen.
On Tuesday, Brentford confirmed Flekken had completed a permanent transfer to the Bundesliga side after two seasons as the Bees' number one.
Flekken appeared in 37 of Brentford's 38 Premier League games in 2024-25 as Thomas Frank's side finished 10th, an improvement of six places on their 2023-24 finish.
The Netherlands international kept seven clean sheets and recorded a save percentage of 72.17%.
Among goalkeepers to play more than five Premier League games, only Chelsea's Robert Sanchez (73.23%) bettered that latter figure.
Brentford moved swiftly to announce Flekken's replacement, confirming Kelleher's arrival on a five-year contract less than an hour after the deal with Leverkusen was revealed.
Director of football Phil Giles said: "I am very pleased to welcome Caoimhin to Brentford. We have scouted him in the past and were aware that he had a year to go on his contract with Liverpool this summer.
"When Mark Flekken had the opportunity to move to Bayer Leverkusen, we immediately thought about Caoimhín as his replacement.
"As well as being a very good goalkeeper, I've rarely met a player for whom everybody has such positive words to say about his personality and character. I'm therefore confident he'll be an excellent addition to the squad."
Kelleher, who has 21 senior caps for the Republic of Ireland, joined Liverpool's academy from Ringmahon Rangers as a 17-year-old in 2015.
He made 10 Premier League appearances last season, filling in for Arne Slot's title winners when Brazil shot-stopper Alisson was injured.
Liverpool kept four clean sheets with Kelleher between the sticks, with his save percentage of 67.57% putting him 12th among all goalkeepers to play at least 10 matches.
Kelleher conceded 12 goals, excluding penalties and own goals, from 11.3 expected goals on target (xGoT) faced, meaning he conceded 0.7 goals more than expected faced on the quality of shots he faced last season.