This could be the shortest review of a player in the squad as we look at a man who strangely never managed a single minute in first team action for Saints.

The arrival of Vegard Forren on January 18th was eagerly awaited by Saints supporters, the central defensive position was considered the weak link in the side and most supporters were disapointed that it hadnt been strengthened in the summer window and expected that to be rectified in January.

Forren arrived with the background that he had been pulled from his hotel room in Liverpool where he was about to start a week long trial and after signing he admitted that he had been told that he wasnt meeting Nigel Adkins as he would soon be leaving, how much Mauricio Pochettino had to do with the signing is also open to conjencture.

Saints fans naturally assumed if Liverpool were interested then he must be of a decent standard at least.

The fact that he didnt appear in the first few games of his Saints career didnt worry many, the Norwegian season had ended five weeks earlier, he would be ring rusty but surely refreshed and in need of just a couple of weeks to get back to match fitness, anyway knowing he was going to Liverpool for a trial he would have surely kept fit during the Norwegian break, but February came and went with little sign of him apart from an appearance on the bench on 9th February for the visit of Man City, perhaps showing he was fit but not match fit quite yet, spordically he would be named as sub, play the odd U21 game and indeed actually play an International for Norway in mid March, but as the weeks turned into months he was no nearer actually getting on the pitch than he had been at the end of January.

So just why hasnt he managed a game ? reportably the fee to sign him was approaching £4 million and as an experienced Norwegian International not to mention a club career with Molde that includes European experience surely he would be good enough for the first team at Saints.

But strangely Pochettino does not appear to rate him highly enough even to give him a quick run off the bench for five minutes or so, clearly not, I have heard rumours that Saints consider him one for next season and felt he was jaded after the Norwegian season, Im not so sure about this, by the time he arrived at St Mary's he had had as much a break as English players get in the summer and to be blunt our need was not next season it was in January as we were still and remained in a relegation battle right up to the penultimate week of the season, if he was good enoughb he should have been put in, after all a few games near the end of the season wouldnt have harmed him and he now has an even longer rest.

Truth of the matter is, if he does play in August, he will be nine months since playing his last competitive club game and thats a hell of a rest.

So what does the future hold at St Mary's for Forren ? well you would hope that perhaps he will come good next season, if he does it makes it all the stranger why he hasnt got a game in the last four months of 2012/13 season, if he is a flop he will be an expensive one at that,if the fee is £4 million or thereabouts as reported, he could quite honestly be our 3rd most expensive signing in history behind Ramirez and Rodriguez and on a par with Rory Delap.         

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 16:11 - May 30 I am not too worried about this one. I think we have made too much of the fact he has not played. You dont always buy a player for today it is and should be more long term than that. Same goes for Gaston. Fact is we were in too much trouble for experimenting and I actually think that our 3 centre backs all upped their game in the 2nd half of the season and proved they ARE premiership players. Too many people have said too many good things about this guy for him not to be any good. With a full pre season I fully expect this guy to play alot of games next season.

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SaintNick added 16:40 - May 30 Sorry Mike but when you buy a 25 year old international for the money we spent on Forren (or Ramirez for that matter) you buy them for today, we were hovering above relegation, if we had been relegated tomorrow wouldn't have come as Ramirez would have been gone. In our final 16 games we won only 4 and shipped in 20 goals I don't call that the defence upping their game at all, ok in the previous 16 we shipped 22, so they upped it slightly lol Who are the people who have said good things about this guy, if your good enough you play, we aren't that good we can hold good players back, indeed it would make sense to have given him a run out this season so he isn't coming into the premier league cold next season Im interested as to why you think he will play a big part, it cannot be based on anything other than a few people talking him up

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slynch added 16:43 - May 30 Maybe he was bought as back-up for Fonte, Yosh and Hooi. If 2 of them had been injured for a prolonged time we all would have been saying what a good purchase he was. For 4mill you can't expect him to be streets ahead the current CBs, all of whom have stepped up to the plate as required.
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SaintNick added 16:51 - May 30 As he cost around the same price as all three of them combined, I think its expected that he would be better than all three, isn't it NC's stated aim though that we only buy players who are better than what we have got
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LennyJam added 16:54 - May 30 if we buy players than we currently have, why did we buy.... gazzaniga seabborne forte etc etc etc
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ItchenNorth added 17:08 - May 30 I have to agree with St Michael on this; it was not the time experiment. 4 million is not a ‘start now’ signing for me given the inflated prices in the Premier League and football at large. Forren came with good reviews, so lets just see how it pans given a full pre season.
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SaintNick added 09:16 - May 31 Couple of points here, we bought Gazzaniga for the future and if you want to be pedantic when we bought him he was actually better than what we had. Secondly I don't think we are experimenting when you play a £4 million pound player, you are paying that money because you are getting a player who is an international and has played European competition club football, stmichael will tell you, a good football manager will know whether a player is good enough or not from training and U21 matches etc, clearly he didn't think Forren was good enough, if he was then why didn't he play him, its not and experiment to play a good player. Maybe Forren will come good next season, but I don't see that he will be any better in August than he was in March, he is 25 and approaching the peak of his career

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BaselSaint added 11:43 - May 31 Hmm...something not quite right with this situation...injury, internal politics, fitness? All a bit of a mystery. Surely someone much more connected than me and in the know either at the training ground or in the club than must have some idea of what the situation is?
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Whatsforpud added 21:50 - May 31 Never put a foot wrong since he's been here!
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NorwegianSaint added 22:27 - May 31 Right.... I am as puzzled as anyone. This guy was playing amazing football for Molde and was voted player of the year here, so when we snatched him from Liverpool I was very happy. The Norwegian press are also puzzled and now he's dropped from the national squad. He scores goals! He defends so calmly! Perfect timed challenges! I know the other three played ok but two questions... why did we buy this world class (yes, World class) player to play under-21s? Who got him... NA didn't meet him and Forren said he never met MoPo? And on another note, anyone else think Billy Sharp could have scored more than J-Rod? Well, I hope we see Forren soon, he was class here

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