Neil Lennon has admitted that he is disappointed with the way Celtic’s interest in Fraser Forster has gone cold.
When the keeper returned to Lennoxtown for pre-season training it seemed likely that a fresh deal with Southampton would be arranged.
Lennon has been involved in signing Forster FOUR times which would suggest that the two men have an understanding of each other.
Modern transfers involve a lot of variables but after returning to Southampton at the end of June it appears that contact between Lennon and the former England keeper has come to a halt.
Asked if negotiations with Foster were over Lennon told The Sun:
From what I gather, yeah. There’s no more movement on it at the minute. We can’t keep leaving the door open. We have to make decisions. If it was to reverse tomorrow we’d go yeah, on you come, but we’re not getting any indication of that happening.
We’re talking to representatives of a couple of goalkeepers so hopefully we’ll have good news sooner rather than later on that. We’re disappointed with the Fraser issue. It’s kind of bizarre the way it’s panned out.
The impression we got was that he wanted to stay at Southampton and fight for his place, which is the player’s prerogative but we had been led to believe something else.
Over the last three weeks Celtic have been linked with Joe Hart and David Marshall but so far no real progress has been made.
Whether that speculation is aimed at pushing Southampton or Forster into making a move remains unknown but with 15 days until the opening match of the season Scott Bain is the only experienced keeper at Celtic.