On the surface his career could hardly be in a better place right now but Fraser Forster is carrying a few issues.
A year ago, Southampton were losing 6-1 at Manchester City with Alex McCarthy in goals and Angus Gunn on the bench. The same duo was in place yesterday with McCarthy back in favour after Gunn lost nine goals at home to Leicester City.
Forster was Southampton’s first choice keeper during the 2017/18 season right up until a 5-2 defeat to Spurs on December 26. After that he made just one more EPL appearance with £10m paid for Gunn as the giant Geordie dropped from being third choice keeper for England at the 2014 World Cup to third choice keeper at Southampton.
Mauricio Pelligrini was the manager at the time, Mark Hughes followed him before Ralph Hasenhuttl took charge with Forster firmly off the menu.
Throughout a career that has taken him to the heights of European football and international recognition the big keeper has been nothing but a model professional, happier on the training ground than in the headlines and spotlight.
After more than 18 months bereft of playing time the breakthrough came with a move to Celtic, in his second match he kept a clean sheet in the Glasgow derby at Ibrox and it seemed just like the old days again.
Yesterday it was a Betfred Cup semi-final, on Thursday it’s a Europa League tie against Lazio with Forster back in the firing line and appreciating every minute.
I got to speak to him at Hampden yesterday, while enjoying the return to action there was a recurring feeling of frustration at lost time in his career. He’ll discuss that in his own time but as he enjoys being back in action, doing his job again there is clearly a sense of hurt over whatever went on at Southampton.
Joe McHugh: Somehow the League Cup evaded you first time around, you’ll be looking to put that right?
Fraser Forster: It would mean the world to me. When you come here you are expected to do well and win trophies. I’m enjoying every game; it would be good to add a League Cup to the collection but that’s on the back burner because we have a lot of important matches coming up.
JM: Where was your career a year ago?
FF: Obviously I wasn’t playing, I was frustrated. I didn’t know what was going on, a lot of other people didn’t know what was going on. It’s been and gone, I’m here at Celtic and trying to make the most of it.
JM: Confidence is so important in sport; how did you retain your confidence?
FF: I always had a belief in my quality and what I had to offer. I never doubted my quality. I went in every day to do my best in training.
I just concentrated on what I could control, I went in, I knew what was going on behind the scenes. I’ve said that when the time is right, the situations I was put in, the stuff I had to do, I will speak about that when I want to speak about it.
I just put my head down, worked harder than ever, concentrated on what I could offer, trained as hard as I could and tried to be good around the lads, that’s all I could do.
JM: Were there other options apart from Celtic in the summer?
FF: There was a bit of interest during the summer but as soon as there was a sniff of interest from Celtic, I was desperate for it to happen.
JM: When did you hear of Celtic’s interest?
FF: There are two very good keepers here, it all happened very quickly in the end after Scott Bain got injured, as soon as I got a sniff about that I was desperate to get back and do whatever to make it happen.
I was in the car within 10 seconds of hearing from Celtic, straight up the motorway, it was a no-brainer for me. After the year I had last year I just wanted to go somewhere that I felt the love. That was the big thing for me, I just wanted to go somewhere that I was wanted and that was it. I couldn’t wait to get back, it was a fantastic club with amazing people, I couldn’t wait to get back and be a part of it.
JM Did the Lazio match have similarities to the Barcelona game in 2012?
FF What was nice about the Lazio game, I’d never compare it to any other, was the way that the lads played to get the win. People talk about money and whatever in football but the feeling after the Lazio game is why we are in it, why we play football. Given the 18 months that I’d had before that as well, I’ll never be able to put it into words how good that felt. It was nice.
All the best to Fraser in Rome and the remainder of his stay with Celtic.