Huddersfield Town's waiting game on Liverpool FC defender Kelly

Jun 24 2009 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Martin Kelly

LIVERPOOL want to run the rule over full-back Martin Kelly in pre-season before deciding whether to loan him to Town again.

Galpharm manager Lee Clark is willing to be patient over the England Under 19 ace, who impressed in seven League I appearances last season.

But with Andy Holdsworth having left the club, he admits to having other irons in the fire over a specialist right-back.

“We’re in close contact with Liverpool over Martin, and I know they’re happy about the way things went when he was here last season,” said Clark.

“They’ve had DVDs of every appearance he made and also had representatives at a number of those matches.

“Now they want to see first hand what effect the loan spell has had in terms of career progression, so they will have a close look at him in pre-season before making a decision.

“If they feel he will benefit from another spell out, then hopefully the way we handed last season’s move will put us first in the pecking order.

“But we also have a dossier of potential targets should we decide we need to bring a right-back in.”

Two factors which could count against Kelly coming back to Town are the departure of stellar defender Sami Hyypia from Liverpool and the need to meet the quota of eight homegrown players in the club’s 25-strong Champions League squad.