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Chelsea In For Fraser Forster
Sunday, 14th Jun 2020 08:32

Fraser Forster seems to be in demand, which could be good for Saints bank balance, with Chelsea said to be set to offer him a way out of St Mary's.

It had widely been assumed that Celtic would be the goalkeepers destination next season after a successful period on loan for this one, however perhaps the Glasgow club's reluctance to get serious with an offer and try to get him on the cheap could back fire on them.

Saints have been keen to get the reported wages in the £80k a week region off the books as well as bring in a transfer fee with Forster still valued at around £10 million.

This is our preferred option, however Celtic seem unwilling or unable to come to the table with something that will attract Saints.

That led to reports that the best offer from Celtic would be another season on loan that would take the keeper to the start of the final year of his contract in the summer of 2021, this is not attractive to Saints as it would still leave them effectively still paying part of Forster's wages.

But now it seems that several other clubs are interested and the main one appears to be Chelsea who are said to be willing to match Saints valuation of the player,

The Blues see Forster as a short term stopgap at best as well as a competent number two keeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, who became the most expensive keeper in history when he joined Chelsea for £72million in 2018, but he has had two mixed seasons at Stamford Bridge, while his deputy Willy Caballero is 38 and has just a year left on his contract, although Arrizabalaga was restored to the starting XI before the mid-March lockdown.

Chelsea are thinking big next season and aim to restore themselves to their former glory and have already demonstrated their ambition by agreeing to sign Timo Werner in a £54million deal to be completed later this month.

They know if they are to get serious then they need to have a keeper who not only can provide back up, but is of the quality to step into the breach should Arrizabalga either be injured or more worryingly lose form again.

This is bad news for Celtic who now have to weigh up whether they can match Chelsea or for that matter several other Premier League clubs in a similar position said to be interested.

For Forster it is also a dilemma, ideally he would prefer to go to Celtic on a decent salary, but is aware that unless it is on loan then he would be taking a hit on his wages, but he would be playing first team football which at age 32 would see him entering his final period as a potential starter, but at Chelsea he would have to compromise game time for salary.

Saints will be pleased at the latest news as it will put Forster in the spotlight and he still has a lot to offer as a keeper and it is said that there are some Premier League clubs now considering him as a first choice, so it will create competition for his services, but for Celtic it is a setback, there was a feeling that they thought they were the only offer on the table so were trying to get another loan deal and therefore get him on the cheap, this now seems not to be the case.


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the_saint added 09:06 - Jun 14
The problem is he loves Celtic and would be first choice there so what's stopping him from just rejecting every club that comes in for him.
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TimSaint added 09:49 - Jun 14
Apparently have given Kepa til the end of the season to show that he is worthy of a place in the team / squad.
Not too sure that FF at 32 is the right fit for Chelsea though. Lampard's focus seems to be on younger players.
I think he will probably end up at Celtic and perhaps it will involve a player swap with that midfielder, or perhaps a CB.
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dirk_doone added 10:26 - Jun 14
Let's face it, he's the only goalkeeper in our squad who would be of interest to another Premier League club.
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the_saint added 11:07 - Jun 14
Fraser and eli for Eduardo 🙏🙏🙏
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Boris1977 added 11:42 - Jun 14
Something strange happened to FF after his injury lay off. He's very clearly a top goalkeeper and probably the best at the club but his drop in form seemed to hang on to needing games to get march sharp after injury but doing this behind a constantly changing and unreliable defence. It's a massive shame that so many mistakes were made in terms of player recruitment have reduced the effectiveness of arguably our best keeper since Niemi.
2

dirk_doone added 12:24 - Jun 14
Boris, I think it was the Dave Watson effect. Remember how great Joe Hart used to be for England? Then Dave Watson got to work on him. The same thing happened to all of the goalkeepers at the club: they started well and then deteriorated. But, now that Watson is no longer our goalkeeping coach, perhaps Forster would be back to his best again, not only for Celtic but also for Saints.

I'm amazed how underrated Forster is by many Saints fans. He has kept more clean sheets and has a better goals conceded per game average than any other top flight Saints goalkeeper this century. Celtic fans think he's fantastic.
2

highfield49 added 13:02 - Jun 14
Can anybody clarify my confusion regarding FIFA transfer rules? My current understanding is that English top flight clubs can't sign any players until 25 July but other leagues have different rules. Does that also mean that players can't be sold before 25 July or is that a separate issue? In the interim can transfers be negotiated between clubs but contracts non- effective until 25 July? I've also read that the French transfer window is open but the Italian window doesn't open till September so does that potentially impact on our club getting some of the deadwood off the books to European clubs? FIFA appear to have let every country decide on it's own rules and regulations and if Scotland opens it's transfer window before 25 July where on earth does that leave any negotiations for Forster's potential move?
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Boris1977 added 16:18 - Jun 14
You could be onto something there Dirk
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underweststand added 10:24 - Jun 17
Forster to Celtic .or Chelsea? From a football point of view - it's surely a no-brainer.
A fee of £10 million would re-coup the original fee, but only partly recover some of the £3, 5 mill. a year salary he's had since arriving, but it would break the bank for Celtic.

£10 million to a team like Chelsea is a drop in the ocean, and I'd feel we'd been robbed if he went to Stamford Bridge for that sort of money.
He clearly has no future with Saints and so we need a deal with one club, or the other, if only to get that huge salary off the books.
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