Current Celtic loanee Fraser Forster says he hopes there are “many more” Hoops appearances to come as he gets ready to enter his third century of turn-outs.
The £10million Englishman returned to the club at the tail end of the summer window and has already made eight first-team starts – becoming Neil Lennon’s first-choice keeper almost instantly.
He made his 200th Celtic appearance all in during the recent defeat to Livingston, and while that may have been a disappointing way to mark the achievement, he still feels positive about it.
“It’s always nice to reach those milestones,” he told the official Celtic website. “I’ve never set out to play a certain number of games, but when you tick them off and someone tells you that was your 200th game or your 100th clean-sheet, you’re always taken back a bit.
“It’s great to make that many appearances for a club like this, and hopefully there’s many more to come.”
Celtic find themselves in a catch-22 with Forster
While that final comment may quite simply be a typical throwaway player comment with little meaning, fans are allowed to question whether Forster will be adding “many more” appearances to his tally.
The Englishman is on loan for the duration of the 2019/2020 season but, as we told you on Thursday, there are real fears that he won’t be here longer than that. The club aren’t understood to hold an ‘option to buy’ on either Forster or his Southampton teammate Mohamed Elyounoussi’s loan deals.
So as Celtic give Forster a platform to reach his top level again, there is always the fear that he could do what he did in 2014 and decide that life is better down south. It’s a catch-22 for the club and one that can’t really be avoided.
We want Forster to get back to his brilliant best this season. But the better he gets, the less likely he is to play “many more” games for Celtic.
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