CELTIC have agreed a deal with Southampton to bring Fraser Forster back to the club five years after he was sold to the English Premier league side. The 31 year old is out of favour at St Mary’s after failing to regain the gloves after being out with a long term knee injury. The Scottish Sun are reporting that Forster is set for a Celtic medical today.
Scott Bain had a torrid evening last Tuesday against Cluj and then dropped out of the Celtic side at the weekend for the League Cup tie against Dunfermline, with a thumb injury.
Craig Gordon returned to the side and will also be in goals for the Europa League Play-off match against AIK Stockholm at Celtic Park this evening.
Southampton have been eager to move Forster on for some time with their current manager Ralph Hasenhuttl preferring both Angus Gunn and Alex McCarthy as his keepers. That has left Forster out on the cold but collecting decent money from the Premier League side.
Forster was in goals for the first three title wins in Celtic’s push towards Ten in a Row, and earned a cap for England while at Parkhead. He also broke Barcelona hearts on that never to be forgotten night in the Champions League in November 2012. The Catalans called him ‘La Grand Muralla’, the Great Wall.
That wonderful form alerted the Premier League and Southampton were the winners in that race, paying £10million for the keeper. Forster was popular at St Mary’s and was their first pick keeper until he picked up that horrible injury. The Saints have worked their way through several managers since then but Forster has not been able to re-establish himself in their side.
That can be particularly difficult thing to do when another keeper takes over, does well and keeps the gloves, as Craig Gordon found to his cost when he was somewhat unfairly replaced by Scott Bain at the start of this year by Brendan Rodgers. Gordon had just played superbly at Ibrox – the only Celt getting pass marks on that occasion – but then was dropped as Bain’s superior kicking abilities were thought to be more valuable to the tactical set-up Rodgers wanted.
Neil Lennon came in at the end of February but by that time Gordon had picked up an injury in training so was not available for selection until the new season. The manager let it be known that the main priority for his goalkeeper was keeping the ball out of the net and Scott Bain seemed to be at fault on several goals including the opener at Motherwell and again against Cluj in the Champions League.
Now with Fraser Forster returning the competition for the gloves at Celtic has just got much more intense. Hopefully he sails through his medical and comes home to Paradise.
Also on The Celtic Star…
Redemption Day for Celtic v AIK – Adversity can bring a new cohesion and a bunker mentality…see HERE.
Players BLAMED, Fans BLAMED but ‘the abuse Peter Lawwell gets is very unfair,’ says Lennon…see HERE.
If you know the history – Celtic at birth, August 1888…see HERE.
