MARSHALL MAY BE No 1 STANDBY
Lennon still keen on Forster deal but Celtic’s former keeper would be a safe pair of hands if he returned
THERE is something especially ironic about the fact Celtic’s efforts to re-sign Fraser Forster have hit a wall. It’s also quite fitting that, as an alternative to the man dubbed La Gran Muralla (The Great Wall) by the Catalan press, the Parkhead club should now be pondering a move for another goalkeeper who made his name with them after shutting out Barcelona in a European tie.
Last weekend, Neil Lennon felt confident of landing Forster after a fresh one-year loan deal with an option to buy in 12 months’ time was brokered with Southampton.
However, the English star’s decision to reject another temporary transfer and hold out for something permanent has halted negotiations.
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell is reluctant to pay a transfer fee approaching £5million to secure Forster’s immediate release from a contract which has two years to run on a reported weekly wage of £90,000.
With the SPFL Premiership season not due to kick off until August 1 and the Champions League qualifiers pushed back until August 18 or 19, Celtic’s need for a new No1 is clear but not yet desperate.
However, with Craig Gordon also off the books, Lennon does not want to run with last season’s third choice Scott Bain as his only seasoned keeper for any great length of time.
Options have been explored. Former England keeper Joe Hart was worth talking to after the expiration of his deal with Burnley, while an enquiry was made as per the availability of AEK Athens’ Greece international keeper Vasilios Barkas. The price tag? £5m.
If Lawwell is thinking twice over shelling out for a known and trusted quantity like Forster, (below), then it would seem unlikely he would either be inclined or capable of persuading Lennon that the money would be better invested in a 26-year-old who would require a settling-in period and might make the club money down the line.
Hart, meanwhile, made only three cup appearances for Burnley in the 2019-20 season and has fallen a long way from his heights as first choice for Manchester City and England.
Which is where David Marshall, a safer and perhaps more sensible bet, comes in. At 35, he is three years older than Forster but is also a known quantity to Lennon and his assistant John Kennedy.
Eight years before Forster’s towering performance kept Lionel Messi and Co at bay in the 2012-13 edition of the Champions League, Marshall was thrown into the heat of a UEFA Cup knockout tie following a half-time tunnel bust-up that saw Rab Douglas red-carded.
Marshall was called on and then performed competently to keep out Frank Rijkaard’s team. But the real test came in the return leg as Martin
O’Neill’s side attempted to preserve their 1-0 lead provided by Alan Thompson’s volleyed winner. Faced with incessant pressure orchestrated by the Brazilian Ronaldinho, Marshall performed heroically, making a string of saves that secured a clean sheet and passage to the next round.
In front of Marshall in the Nou Camp that night were both Lennon and a young Kennedy, himself displaying his promise as a formidable defender just a couple of weeks before his Scotland debut and the horrendous knee injury that would eventually end his career. Kennedy would briefly re-emerge but by the time he was fit to play again, Marshall’s own Parkhead story had been cut short.
Entrusted by O’Neill to see out the season and start the 2004 Scottish Cup final win over Dunfermline, he went on to play regularly the following term and made his international debut but got off to a bad and fateful start under new Celtic manager Gordon Strachan in 2005.
Dropped in favour of Artur Boruc following a thumping by Artmedia Bratislava, Marshall was relegated to back-up and would eventually join Norwich City where, for a spell, he was joined by Kennedy.
The current Scotland No 1, Marshall has proven himself a reliable operator through subsequent service at Cardiff, Hull and now Wigan. The latter’s descent into administration last week raises the prospects of a quick deal.
Marshall would bring experience and an in-depth knowledge of Celtic, while a return would allow him to spend more time at the family home from which he has continued to commute. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely Lennon (below) will give up on Forster just yet.
A key figure and strong character during the manager’s first spell in charge of the club, Forster’s heroics in the 2012 game against Barcelona helped win him an England cap and convince Southampton to fork out £10m when he moved on in 2014.
Having reunited with Celtic goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods to great effect last season, Forster pulled out huge performances in the Parkhead team’s two most significant wins of the season.
Olivier Ntcham may have claimed a piece of history with the goal that saw Celtic nudge 2-1 ahead of Lazio to win on Italian soil for the first time, but it was
Forster’s saves that laid the groundwork for back-to-back wins over the Serie A club. Even better was his showing in the League Cup final last December when he single-handedly defied Alfredo Morelos and Rangers to keep his team in the hunt for a scarcely deserved 1-0 win. As Celtic strive to stave off their biggest rivals in pursuit of ten in a row this term, Lennon would feel much happier knowing Forster is his last line of defence. Having recruited Victor Wanyama, Virgil van Dijk and the young Forster, no one understands Celtic’s recruitment model better than the current manager. Convincing Lawwell that not every signing the club makes needs to hold huge resale value will be Lennon’s first big challenge of the new season.