Martin Kelly (Liverpool -> Crystal Palace)

Kelly called up by England.

Liverpool defender Martin Kelly is today celebrating after being called into the England Under-19 squad for their forthcoming European Championship qualifiers.
Brian Eastick's side take on Bosnia and Herzegovina at Doncaster Rovers FC's Keepmoat Stadium, on Wednesday, May 27. They then take on Slovakia at Bradford City FC's Valley Parade on Friday, May 29, followed by a clash with Scotland at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane on Monday, June 1.
 
All matches will kick-off at 7pm BST.
 
Yorkshire is the location for all of the games, with the four teams battling it out to finish in top spot and thereby seal a place in the last eight for July's final stage in Ukraine.
 
The U19s will now be looking to reach the final stage for a second successive season after last year travelling to Czech Republic.
 
Kelly is a highly rated defender who can play at centre half or right back. He earned great reviews for his performances during a loan spell with Huddersfield Town this season.
 
We would like to wish Martin all the best for the forthcoming matches.

Well never heard much about this lad.Anyone watched him play before?

KELLY CALLED UP BY ENGLAND
Steve Hunter 19 May 2009
   Liverpool defender Martin Kelly is today celebrating after being called into the England Under-19 squad for their forthcoming European Championship qualifiers.
Brian Eastick's side take on Bosnia and Herzegovina at Doncaster Rovers FC's Keepmoat Stadium, on Wednesday, May 27. They then take on Slovakia at Bradford City FC's Valley Parade on Friday, May 29, followed by a clash with Scotland at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane on Monday, June 1.
 
All matches will kick-off at 7pm BST.
 
Yorkshire is the location for all of the games, with the four teams battling it out to finish in top spot and thereby seal a place in the last eight for July's final stage in Ukraine.
 
The U19s will now be looking to reach the final stage for a second successive season after last year travelling to Czech Republic.
 
Kelly is a highly rated defender who can play at centre half or right back. He earned great reviews for his performances during a loan spell with Huddersfield Town this season.
 
We would like to wish Martin all the best for the forthcoming matches.

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Well never heard much about this lad.Anyone watched him play before?

He's one of the real stand out players in the reserves. He had a real horrible back injury that kept him out for ages a while back and this is his first season in the reserves if I'm not mistaken? Had a really good season and he thoroughly deserves the call up. I do think he'll break into the first team at some point over the next 2-3 years if he keeps it up. Best of luck to the lad!

Well good luck to him then. It's tempting to tout him as the "Next Carra" but ,will just have to wait and see.Oh and can any of the staffs put the first post into the article format,please?

Didn't he get a game in Europe this year? He, Spearing and Darby all made their European debut on the same night against PSV.

He's also been loaned out this season, Huddesfield I think it is, and he scored a goal for them as well. So maybe he can teach a few of our centre halves how to score.

He has been a very good player in the youth/reserve sides and has done well on his loan move by all accounts. It's difficult to look beyond Skrtel and Agger as the future partnership at the heart of the defence, but Kelly has as good a chance as any to make the step up. He's also capable of playing full back, but again the odds are probably against him as Darby and Insua look the best prospects in those positions.

Lets hope he gets a run in the team so we can see how good he is

Yeah, would be good to see him get ,at least a run out during preseason.

Didn't he get a game in Europe this year? He, Spearing and Darby all made their European debut on the same night against PSV.

He's also been loaned out this season, Huddesfield I think it is, and he scored a goal for them as well.

Yep. Apparently after his first handful of games their manager and assistant (who happens to be Terry McDermott) rang up Gary Ablett saying they didn't realise how good he was. Great thing to hear.

ENGLAND JOY FOR KELLY AGAINST SCOTLAND
Steve Hunter 02 June 2009
    Martin Kelly played the full 90 minutes as England Under-19s beat Scotland 2-1 last night to qualify for the European Championship finals in Ukraine.
The Liverpool defender was in impressive form at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane and he can now look forward to competing against Europe's best in July.
 
It has been a great end to the season for Kelly who also made his first team debut in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven.
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Keep it up Martin!

Good to see his international career is taking off as well now.

Good to see a reserve lad coming along well nicely after a horrific back injury, speaks volumes of the lad's character

His international career looks to be taking off at the right moment, good luck lad!

Lets hope his club career does as well

Keep up the good work Martin ,Rafa will be aware of his improvements and skill

I think MArtin has played superbly so far this pre-season and reckon he may well become our 4th choice centre-half this season. San Jose has also looked good but Kelly has shown in the two games so far that he has the poise, aggression and quality on the ball to be involved this season.

From what i've seen of him in his few appearances for us and his england u-19's, I really rate this lad and think he could do well for us.

With the right coaching, and hard work he can definitely make it.

Another crunching challenge today. He is sort of a cross between Macherano and Carragher. I hope he does well cause he sure has class this lad. There was a certain Mr Kippe and Traore with the same promise as Ayala-Kelly. I just hope they don't follow

KELLY: I'VE GROWN AS A PLAYER

   
England U19 international Martin Kelly believes he will end pre-season a much better player after learning from the likes of Jamie Carragher.

The centre-back claims he has gained a lot from playing and training alongside his senior colleagues in Switzerland and Asia - with Carra in particular giving him a helping hand.
 
Kelly told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Carra always helps you out in training and games, telling you where to be in relation to the forwards. I'm grateful for that because a young lad can benefit from that experience.
 
"You can't get any better than learning alongside players like Carra, Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel. That's going to bring the best out of me and hopefully I'll get more of it.
 
"We'll have to wait and see what happens once the season starts but at the moment I'm just concentrating on working hard. That's what Rafa has told me - just keep working hard."
 
Kelly spent the last three months of 2008-09 at Huddersfield Town, where he earned the praise of assistant manager and Kop icon Terry McDermott.
 
The 19-year-old claims he returned to Anfield with more maturity.
 
"I learnt quite a bit," he said. "It was a different experience to what I'm getting now but it was a good one. It has helped me mature a bit and helped me when I joined up with the first team for pre-season.
 
"It's good being around the first team. Training has been good but hard. The experience I'm getting here is great, I'm really enjoying it and couldn't wish to be anywhere else.
 
"The pace is a lot quicker and you have to find your feet quickly, but that's what you need in pre-season."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N165250090801-0934.htm

4th choice at this stage.

Terriers miss out on Kelly

Huddersfield Town have failed in a bid to bring Liverpool defender Martin Kelly back to the club on loan.

Kelly made seven appearances for the Terriers at the end of last season and Lee Clark was keen to re-sign the 19-year-old.

However, Clark has revealed that Liverpool are unwilling to let the right-back go out on loan after he impressed Rafa Benitez in pre-season.

"Liverpool have told us that Martin Kelly will not be available on loan," Clark told the club's official website.

"They want to keep him for their Champions League campaign because he has been impressive in pre-season.

"We respect that decision, but we are disappointed so we have to move on and try and get the next one.

"We are always looking and the backing is there from the owner, but they have to be the right quality and the right character. I can't say what will definitely happen, but we are all working on one or two."

Click here for this Article

He should have started against Espanyol instead of San Jose. Great that We have rejected an offer for him, obviously in Rafa's plans.

I second what you say cant believe that San jose got played ahead of Kelly. Kelly has shown potential is positioning is fairly good were as San jose's positioning is horrendous he cost us a lot last night.

KELLY LANDS ENGLAND CALL

Martin Kelly has been called up for England's under-20 clash with Montenegro on Tuesday night.
The defender has made a good impression with Liverpool's first-team during pre-season and will now join up with Brian Eastick's 18-man squad for the friendly at the Hawthorns.
 
The match will provide England with their final test ahead of the FIFA U20 World Cup in Egypt next month.

Click here for Liverpoolfc.tv Article

I actually rate Martin. He looks pretty comfortable with the ball whenever I've seen him play. Congratulations on making the England u-20 squad.

Shame he didn't play more in pre-season, IMO he is much better than San Jose.