Fraser Forster has bounced back from 'horrendously hard days'
Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster opens up on the ‘very dark, horrendously hard days’ when out of favour and insists he appreciates how lucky he is after coming in from the cold
- Fraser Forster admits he has come through some dark times in recent years
- The goalkeeper fell out of favour at Southampton and struggled to regain form
- Loan spell at Celtic last season helped Forster remind everyone of his quality
- Now the 33-year-old is back in favour ahead of his side’s FA Cup semi final
Considering it has just gone 8am in the morning when Fraser Forster is all set up in front of Zoom to speak to Sportsmail he is in especially good spirits.
‘I’ve just had to do an FA Cup quiz and I was like “I don’t even know what time it is, let alone [some of] these answers,”’ he laughed.
Forster did all he could to remain upbeat during the most difficult period of his career but he has genuine reason for the smile on his face now.
Fraser Forster has reason to be happy again after coming through a really difficult spell
The goalkeeper is back as Southampton’s number one after extended absence from the side
It is no longer one that has to mask an understandable disappointment at finding himself out in the football wilderness but also the sort you might expect now he has managed to completely transform his Southampton fortunes.
Forster is back as No.1 after a fall from grace and extended absence that was as much of a head scratcher for him as it was for some of the supporters he bumped into around the city.
And occasions like Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leicester represent the light after some ‘very, very dark, horrendously hard days’ for the 33 year-old.
Being back out on the Wembley pitch will bring Forster full circle. The last time he played there was when things began to unravel.
Southampton lost 5-2 against Tottenham on Boxing Day 2017 at the latter’s temporary home and what happened next suggests Forster was made one of the scapegoats.
Southampton’s 5-2 defeat to Tottenham on Boxing Day 2017 proved a turning point for Forster
He did not play again for then manager Mauricio Pellegrino or at all for his successor Mark Hughes, who signed Angus Gunn to push him further down the pecking order. Forster then played just once in Ralph Hasenhüttl’s first two years, spending last season on loan at Celtic.
Before coming in from the cold to face Liverpool in January, Forster had made just one Southampton appearance in any competition three years.
‘It’s obviously been a bit of a journey,’ back in favour Forster said.
‘I’d just signed a new five year deal, six months later you’re out the team, then a year later you’re not even making squads so it is very tough, not going to lie.
‘Managers pick the team and if you’re not their cup of tea or they don’t rate you, as a keeper it’s hard to get back in. For whatever reason I just ended up stuck in a situation.’
Forster revealed Mauricio Pellegrino never gave him an answer as to why he was banished
Did he get any explanation from the man who first sent him into exile, Pellegrino? ‘Not really,’ Forster said. ‘I think he was just searching for answers to get anything to help the team kick on and change the results.’
Forster had been too whenever he bumped into fans wondering how a £10m England keeper whose 13-save display for Celtic against Barcelona in 2012 saw him nicknamed La Gran Muralla – The Great Wall – and was hailed by Lionel Messi as ‘not human’ and ‘the best goalkeeping performance I’ve ever seen’ could not get a game.
‘I’ve definitely had a few of those conversations,’ he said ‘People have asked me but it’s hard to explain.
‘A lot of the time you’re searching for answers yourself but normally just make some sarcastic comment and off you go. I think that’s how I deal with it. You’ve just got to laugh haven’t you?’
It has not always been possible for Forster to be positive.
While at Celtic the keeper produced a stunning performance against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona
‘There have been some very, very dark, horrendously hard days that’s for certain,’ he admitted.
‘You just can’t really see how you can move forward because you get to the point where you are not making match day squads, the transfer window is shut and then you’re left thinking: ‘I’ve got four months of this ahead of me.’
‘I dropped from being a No1 to a No3 and then you’re thinking: “I need two injuries, two things to happen” or whatever. It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at times.’
Forster’s friends and ‘fantastic family’ provided the support during that difficult period.
He never let his standards drop knowing ‘things can change quickly in football.’
Forster is renowned for being the first one in at Southampton’s Staplewood training ground, usually heading straight to the gym to kick-start his day.
He is known for being one of Southampton’s hardest trainers and one of the first to arrive
‘You’ve just got to adopt the mindset that you can only do what you can do. If you come in, train well, work hard, do everything right, try and be a good guy around the place, try and do everything right that’s all you can do ultimately,’ he said.
‘If I pick the team obviously I’d put myself in the team but I don’t so that’s all you can do. If you can go home at the end of each day and know you’ve given 100 per cent and worked as hard as you can then that’s all you can do and it’s someone else’s decision who plays on a Saturday so I just got into that mindset of trying to do that and just working hard for me.’
The circumstances, meanwhile, provided all the extra motivation he needed.
‘I always wanted to work hard and prove people wrong,’ he explained. ‘When you’re in that situation that’s your main inspiration.’
Spending last season on loan at ‘perfect club’ Celtic gave him the platform to ‘remind people what I can do’ and he was determined to fight for his place at Southampton, discussing a return mainly with CEO Martin Semmens who was happy to welcome him back this season along with Hasenhuttl.
Forster is grateful for his loan spell at Celtic last season where he could show his quality
This season’s FA Cup has helped too, offering Forster further opportunity after facing Liverpool to prove he has become the goalkeeper Hasenhuttl wants.
After Liverpool Forster kept clean sheets in his next three appearances – cup ties against Shrewsbury, Arsenal and Wolves – and has since started six of Southampton’s last seven games.
‘As we’ve all seen over the last five, ten years, football has changed a lot anyway but obviously Ralph has come in, plays a high pressing game and, as a keeper, he wants you to be calm on the ball and build up from the back as much as we can which I haven’t really done with previous managers,’ Forster explained.
‘There was a big emphasis on that, being more composed on the ball, better distribution and he wants to play higher up the pitch as a goalkeeper.
‘He’s getting the lads to press at the top end of the pitch which means the back four play higher and you have to fill the space in behind.
Hasenhuttl has brought a high intensity style to Southampton and Forster is enjoying it
‘If you want to play for Ralph then you have to play this way. It’s either that or the highway really. I think it’s been fantastic because he’s brought on all of the keepers, developed all of the keepers and I’m really enjoying it. Long may it continue.’
Forster now returns to Wembley with a new-found appreciation for the game after all he and the world have gone through in the last few years.
‘I didn’t take it for granted but I’d never experienced that before where I’d been a No1 for the previous nine or ten years,’ he said.
‘There might be a game day now and you think how far you’ve actually had to come, what you’ve come through, how tough things were, how bad some of the days were, to then just be happy to go out and play, have fun ultimately.
‘It gives you such an appreciation of how fortunate you are. That and the whole last year for everyone in the country really.
‘We’ve been so fortunate as footballers where we’ve been able to keep going to training, be around your teammates, keep playing games.
‘It just gives everyone just a completely different appreciation of how lucky they are to play football.’
The 33-year-old says he has a new appreciation for the game after what has happened recently
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