Southampton 'made their mind up' on £70k-a-week star at St Mary's

Southampton will not regret their decision to not hand Fraser Forster a new contract, according to talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook.

There has been some uncertainty about Forster’s future for a while, but the 34-year-old now looks set to depart St Mary’s this summer.

Forster has been at Southampton since 2014, although he did spend a season on loan at Celtic in 2019/20.

His £70,000-a-week contract is due to expire next month, but he has had an impressive second half of the season filling in for the injured Alex McCarthy, leading to some wondering whether he could be offered a new deal.

However, The Telegraph reported at the end of last month that he is set to leave the club when his contract ends, with the South Coast team having agreed a long-term deal with McCarthy instead.

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Crook believes Forster has done well this season, but has claimed that Southampton formed an opinion of the shot-stopper some time ago, suggesting it is no great surprise that he is being moved on.

When asked by GIVEMESPORT if Southampton may be concerned that they made a mistake handing McCarthy a contract over Forster, Crook replied: “No, I don’t think so, because they made their mind up on Forster a long time ago. They sent him on loan to Celtic. He only got his chance because McCarthy got injured.

“He’s taken his chance, but I always think it’s easy to look good in a team that are giving away a lot of chances, as Southampton have been.”

Looking at the statistics prior to the final game of the season, there is very little to split the pair.

McCarthy and Forster had both earned average match ratings of 6.70 from WhoScored this season, while the former had the slight edge when it