Noel Whelan is full of praise for Fraser Forster

Former Leeds United star Noel Whelan regularly speaks to the Football Insider outlet about the latest events in world football and this week, he’s been speaking about Celtic’s pursuit of Fraser Forster.

The Southampton star is still in Glasgow, training with The Hoops, even though the Scottish football season has been cut short.

Saints are preparing to restart the Premier League season and are training in strict conditions and as Forster isn’t part of their registered squad, it made no sense for him to be in their bubble so he’s still at Celtic.

However, as much as the Hoops would like to keep him, Chelsea are apparently showing interest in Forster too and speaking to FI, Whelan was full of praise for the goalkeeper but said the interest from a top-four team in England, added to the player’s wages, makes things tricky for the Hoops.

He said:

He’s a player that was surplus to requirements at Southampton and he has rejuvenated himself at Celtic. I felt he was on the verge of another England call-up, the way he was playing. With having such a great season with the performances he’s put in, now teams are looking at him in the English Premier League.

Can Celtic can afford him? He’s got two years left on his contract at Southampton – can they afford the wages that he’s getting there, because he’s a high earner at Southampton? Can you persuade him Celtic are the club to be at at the start of next season?

There’s a lot of work to be done on this contract and a lot of thought to go into it from the player himself – does he want to stay in the Premier League and give that a shot?

If it’s a top-four, he will be playing in Europe so it’s one of those – he seems like he’s very, very at home at Celtic because he’s been there before, Neil Lennon seems to have a great relationship with the player. It really does come down to the player and where he wants to play his football.

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We were informed earlier in the month that a move for Forster was almost completed but it looks like interest from other parties has complicated matters as Southampton look for the best deal possible.

With Craig Gordon looking like he could leave, Celtic really do need to address their goalkeeping department as quickly as possible so these hold-ups are far from ideal.

If Celtic can get a deal done for Fraser, given the current financial state of football, then they will pursue one, but it looks like the move isn’t as close as we were told by our source.