In the eight years Fraser Forster guarded Southampton’s goal, it’s safe to say his form fluctuated between the very good and very ordinary. There was a stage when he seemed to have lost any semblance of confidence, but with the help of a restorative loan spell at Celtic, he returned to being, by the time his contract expired in the summer of 2022, the club’s first-choice goalkeeper. Indeed his display at home to Arsenal in the April not only won what turned out to be a valuable three points but also meant the club he was about to join, Tottenham Hotspur, qualified for the Champions League at the Gunners’ expense.

He had arrived at St Mary’s from Celtic where, after a couple of loan spells, he had signed permanently in July 2012 from Newcastle, his first club, and it was from that date he began to fulfil the potential he had first shown while on loan at Norwich (having been voted their Players’ Player of the year award in 2010). He particularly shone in the Champions League defeat of Barcelona by Celtic in November 2012 which had the Spanish Press dubbing him “La Gran Muralla” or “The Great Wall”. His speciality was shot stopping, using all of his 6’7” to make his goal look very small to advancing forwards and by the time  Saints new manager, Ronald Koeman, signed him in the summer of 2014 for a free in the region of £10m he had won his first England cap.

His first season at St Mary’s was impressive, he helped the team qualify for Europe even though he sustained a broken kneecap in the March 2015 that sidelined him for the rest of that year. He returned the following season to set a new club record of 708 minutes without conceding a goal to help Saints gather their highest total of Premier League points. In July 2017 he signed a new five-year contract but had already started a run of form that could charitably be described as indifferent and he eventually lost his place to Alex McCarthy. His kicking could be erratic and there was a feeling that he did not dominate his area enough. When Angus Gunn arrived he slipped further down the pecking order and it was regarded beneficial by all parties when he accepted a season-long loan move. His form resurfaced in Scotland and returning to Saints for the 20-21 season he played in the 1-0 win over Liverpool when McCarthy had contracted COVID-19 and made 13 appearances in all competitions. With his contract running out in the summer of 2022 there were calls for him to be offered a fresh deal but having tasted the ups and downs of life on the south coast he probably thought it was as good a time to leave as any, especially as Tottenham, his destination, were about to again sample Europe’s top competition.

Fraser was born in Hexham, Northumberland and was the son of a QC. Educated at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle he didn’t play football until the age of 13, preferring rugby and cricket instead.