NEIL LENNON this morning explained why the Fraser Forster move to Celtic has stalled and maybe collapsed completely. And the Celtic manager revealed that Celtic had reached an agreement with Southampton but the delay or worse still the deal being off completely is down to the player himself.

“There was a deal agreed between both the clubs, it’s gone quiet from the player’s side,” Lenny said.

That ties in with the report last week on The Celtic Star that stated that Forster wanted a permanent transfer rather than another loan deal to go through – if we believe that what Neil Lennon was speaking about was another lion deal having been agreed with Southampton.

Celtic were reported to have been contributing just £15,000 a week to Forster’s huge weekly wage packet at Southampton and obviously a permanent deal would mean that Celtic would have to fork out huge wages to bring the player back to Paradise.

If Celtic prefer a loan deal and Forster wants a permanent move then it is going to be a very expensive compromise for Celtic and one that perhaps the club is unwilling or maybe unable to justify.

“We are looking at other options. There was a deal agreed between both the clubs, it’s gone quiet from the player’s side of things. We would dearly love him back here but if that’s not the case then we’ll look elsewhere.” Neil Lennon said.

Lenny was upbeat, and the sense of excitement with the fixtures being announced was apparent. “We are very excited. It’s been great to have the players back, preparations are going well and we’ve been going through all the protocols,” he said.

“It’s a big season ahead, domestically and in Europe so we are excited. In terms of training and getting ready for the games, nothing’s changed really.

“We’ve got to just take it as the next title. For some players they’ll be going for their first, for some they’ll be going for their tenth. It’s monumental what we are going for but we can’t get distracted.”

Back to the fixtures, and Neil Doncaster was on Sky Sports this morning talking about the fixture list and the reason why the Winter Break has been cancelled this year. And Doncaster ‘certainly hopes’ that the fans will be back by the time Celtic host Rangers in the Glasgow Derby in October.