Neil Lennon: Celtic may be priced out of Fraser Forster deal

Neil Lennon has admitted Celtic could be priced out of securing a permanent return to the club for Betfred Cup Final hero Fraser Forster.

The 31-year-old has been superb for the champions since rejoining them on a season-long loan from Southampton in August and produced a remarkable display at Hampden on Sunday in the 1-0 win over Rangers.

Celtic manager Lennon believes Forster is in the form of his life and merits a recall to the England set-up, having won the most recent of his six caps in 2016.

Lennon makes no secret of his desire to bring Forster back on a longer-term basis but both the transfer fee and wages involved make it problematic.

Forster, who moved to Southampton from Celtic for £10 million in the summer of 2014, remains under contract at the English Premier League club until 2022 and is understood to be on a salary of around £70,000 a week.

“It’s about affordability,” said Lennon. “That’s something we can talk about. I’ll talk to the player but first we have to make the call to Southampton and I’ll need to speak to (chief executive) Peter Lawwell about that.

“Is it beyond us? I don’t know. Would I love to do it? Of course, but we have to be realistic at times and we can’t go overboard either. We have to be prudent but we have him right now and it’s fantastic, because he’s definitely made us better.

“I think he’s better now than he was before and I certainly think (England manager) Gareth Southgate should have a look at him. He’s been unbelievable. He’s more mature.

“He just wasn’t getting beat on Sunday. Just not getting beat. He was absolutely remarkable and to do that in the context of a final, speaks volumes for his talent.

“His movement, his footwork was fantastic. He makes blocks, he just closes down the angles. He doesn’t give himself up too early. He doesn’t second guess the striker – he reads it brilliantly. Because of his frame, his wingspan, he can get to balls other goalkeepers can’t get to and it gives the back four a huge shot in the arm to have someone like that in goal.

“He’s done it in Europe as well for us against a class side like Lazio, who beat Juventus the other night, by the way. It speaks volumes for the performances we put in against them away and at home. He is definitely in brilliant form and better than first time round.

“If we only have him for a year, we’ll try to enjoy him while he’s here. He’s really happy - you can see that in his body language. He had a really difficult 18 months but for him to be back, he is so happy.”