Fraser Forster is a fans favourite up at Celtic Park even though he snubbed them last year to remain at St Mary's, but with a year left on his contract it seems that Celtic are sniffing around again.
Last summer Celtic tried to take Fraser Forster on loan for a second season, but found that the player himself preferred to stay at St Mary's and fight for his place, in his place Vasilis Barkas arrived from Olympiakos for £5million but failed to live up to expectations, and now talks have begun over bringing Forster back to the club on loan, according to the Scottish Sun and other media outlets.
But the various outlets seem unable to agree what the terms of the deal will be, the Scottish Sun claim that Celtic will have to pay a third of Forster's £130k a week wages, which as we all know is an absurd figure, whilst other reports suggest that Forster is on £72k a week and that Saints want not only a loan fee of around £3 million but those wages paid.
For both player and club it is a crossroads, the keeper is now in the last year of his contract and Saints need him at St Mary's even if he can't oust Alex McCarthy, if they let Forster go out on loan it is effectively a free transfer albeit one where we might have to pay a proportion of his wages if we believe the Scottish Sun.
But if he let him go then we have to replace him and that will cost money, that being the case it is pointless letting him go to Celtic unless they pay all of his wages, if they were to say pay £50,000, leaving us to pay around £25 k a week still on the books, by the time we took on another keeper even if it was on loan, we would be out of pocket, so it would be pointless.
At worst it would have to be a deal that sees all of his wages paid at best for Saints we would want a transfer fee as well, in truth if we were to pursue that avenue then it would effectively be a permanent transfer anyway.
Celtic are perhaps trying to get Forster on the cheap due his being in the last year of his contract, but they are barking up the wrong tree, it has to be the right financial deal for Saints, otherwise it just isn't worth our while, better to keep Forster fighting for his place with Alex McCarthy and give us a year to find a new keeper who will be number one going forward.
Many Saints fans consider that in the second half of the season Fraser Forster was a better bet in the Saints goal and nearing his best again, even in the bizarre two games in two games out experiment at the end of the season, Forster showed his form and McCarthy didn't.