Best and Forster would do well at Celtic

Best off to Celtic?
If you listen to reports in the press it would seem that two Newcastle players are bound for Glasgow Celtic this summer.

Apparently Neil Lennon is lining up a £4 million double swoop for Fraser Forster and striker Leon Best as they look to defend their SPL title next season.

Of course Celtic fans will know all about Forster already as he has spent the last two seasons on loan at Parkhead. As a fellow Hexham lad I feel like a Judas for saying it, but I don’t think Forster would be able to carve out a spot for himself in the first team at United so it’s probably best for all concerned if he moves on and concentrates on improving himself North of the border.

Leon Best is a different case though. I know he has parts of his game that need working on, but I actually quite like him as a player. He’s physical, can run, head and has skills on the ball that sometimes just leave you thinking “did Leon Best really just do that” in a pleasantly surprising kind of way.

When he gets a run in the team he’s rarely let us down and I personally think he’ll do well at Celtic if he joins them over the summer. Remember he was all set for a move to Celtic in January but for one reason or another it failed to come off.

I actually think the pair will be excellent for Celtic and I’d wish them nothing but success if they did both end up making the move. They are both unlikely to feature in our first team for much longer, barring the most extreme of injury problems, so it would make sense for them to go somewhere where they will get more of a stab at playing first team football.

Best would link up well with Gary Hooper and would be the more physical of the two playing more of a holding role allowing Hooper to run in behind and generally be a poacher. I could see a real partnership between the two if truth be told.

If they do both go it would leave a hole in our squad, but not an irreplaceable one give the lack of input they’ve both had on our fortunes and the lack of input they are likely to have in the future given the look of how our squad is shaping up.

Good luck to the pair of them I say!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

39 thoughts on “Best and Forster would do well at Celtic

  1. Agreed, only problem with Best is that he is not clinical enough, but then, not many are.

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  2. its a pity forster wouldnt sit on the bench hes not all that good by all accounts,but got to be better than elliot ive watched him a few times and is ****,pardews only bad buy imo

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  3. Agree with you Toonsy I like Best and would prefer us to keep him. You can’t have 5 Cisse’s fighting for 2 positions (or at least we can’t) so he’s probably the best we can get as back-up.

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  4. I suppose at the end of the day they will also have the chance to play Champions League fotball too….

    4 mill for both of them is a real good deal, too good imo… Leon Best is a proven EPL striker…

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  5. As a Celtic fan I’d be delighted if we sign Forster. The Celtic support were undecided about him prior to last season but he’s improved enormously. As for Best , we know little about him. As a Football Country within a much bigger wealthier England its difficult to operate in the British market and I guess Best may come into the category of someone who hasn’t quite worked out elsewhere yet. It should be easier for a decent striker to score goals in Scotland but it doesn’t always work out that way and many have failed. Playing for Celtic in Scotland presents pressure that even the likes of Man Utd don’t fully experience in England,with them expected to win every games and this requires the right mentality. Of course I’d rather play in a more competitive league where a draw would be considered a good result. I’ve been impressed with Newcastle last year and look forward to see how they do this season.Howay the lads.

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  6. Good luck to the pair of them(assuming they both go), I think Best will do a good job for them bit of a shame to see him go but I think the lad wants a chance of playing regularly which he’ll never get here. Forster would never come back here to be number 2, he’s played as 1st choice keeper for 3 years now with Celtic and Norwich and won medals in all 3 seasons, a bit hard to come back and warm the bench after that.

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  7. Am I the only person who would be nervous if these two left?
    Forster is a potential England international and home grown player who could be perfect number two not that he would want to be however.
    But best is looking like our only striker left once the Acon comes around!
    We will only be left with ameobi for 6 weeks at this rate!

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  8. I would only let Best leave if we signed another striker, Weve already let Loverman leave and Ranger will probably be making hoes drop they *** elsewhere next season (with any luck)

    Forster not remotely arsed about there was a chance for him and krul to stake a claim pre last season with Harps back injury and he made himsel look a **** at leeds and looked shaky his other matches…

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  9. Guys

    I was a heavy critic of Foster during the 1st season on loan but last season seen massive improvement and he had a record number of matches where he conceded no goals… Fraser improved dramatically during loan spell 2 and should have been closer to the England squad but his only crime is he plays in Scotland which is seen as a back water league…. At £2million i would say we are now stealing him…. Best i don’t have much to say, from what i have seen he is a decent player and would happily take him as he is the type of striker we currently need to partner Hooper… Anyhow good luck for the season ahead…

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  10. Will be dissapointed to see Forstergo as I believe he’s a good keeper and certainly better than Elliot, but probably too go to sit on the bench and play second fiddle to a fantastic keeper like Krul.

    As for Best – Goodbye. Never good enough, too injury prone and just isn’t the type of player we should be looking at. I’d be happy if he was replaced in the squad with an up and coming young striker with potential.

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  11. I am a Celtic fan so thanks for giving some insight into Leon Best. Not sure if I am keen on Best but I am aware we just can’t compete financially nowadays so we have to look for players like Best who aren’t quite the finished article.

    Thanks for also writing a decent article aswell unlike the other Newcastle fan that pops up on newsnow called Nu Mad, he is an utter **** who can’t write about Celtic without having a dig.

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  12. Gutted to see bestie go, seems like a good lad and had never let us down in the prem. helped keep up us last year and liked up well with ba this year.

    Can see us bringing in 1 young striker giving us : ba, cisse, shola, *new*.

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  13. Solanostrumpet would not be too happy with that. Given Ba & Cisse are off to ACON that would leave us with Shola & New. Need a third striker I would have thought.

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  14. I agree with other posters as regards Forster, he has improved dramatically last season and now appears to be a top keeper [i didnt rate him the season before], Best could do a job for us if he stays fit. I always liked Newcastle though as Hannibal says the poster nu mad almost put me off you. This article and better posters on here restored my faith. Good luck for next season Magpies.

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  15. I’m also in the the “keep Best” camp. He was very influential and played a part in many of Ba’s goals, doing a hell of a lot of donkey work and he was a little unlucky not to score a few more and with his injury. I like the kid and if we sell him off without picking up another non-ACON striker, we could be in a fix.

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  16. Premandup, would be nice but i highly doubt we’ll want to sign two decent strikers as back up for just 1 month given that we’ve only been playing 1 up front recently anyway.

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  17. Nice to see Celtic fans on here in peace. Good luck to you boys too.

    Question: I’ve often heard it said team X, even though we despise team Y, just would not be the same without team Y around. With your team Y in a serious tailspin, what are you thoughts (aside from jubilation)? Do you want to see them self destruct, or doe Scottish football need that core rivalry?

    I wonder what NUFC fans would want, faced with the possibility of a complete Sunderland destruction.

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  18. liam southern toon

    You predicted afew things last week. ie drogba leaving,

    the toon in for a dutch player

    demba leaving

    and us in for giroud

    So far demba has gone and we look like getting the dutch player in Anita. So far so good mate.

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  19. Another Celtic fan here, we have super Hooper we do not need this guy Best.

    If he does come to Celtic he would only warm the bench as Hooper is a class striker in any team.

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  20. Stephen@9….I think another reason that Forster didn’t get near the England squad is that he has a Scottish sounding name so the feckwits at the FA probably don’t even realise he’s English 🙄

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  21. Alex…tbf Drogba leaving was pretty commmon knowledge since before Xmas, when did Demba leave? 😯 and I doubt that Dutch kid is the one Liam was talking about, wouldn’t have got him as excited as he was 😉

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  22. With regards to the plight of R*ngers FC (in administration) they deserve ALL thats coming to them, to have potentially cheated for 25yrs+ and gaining championships and monies that go with that ie. Champions League money etc etc is a SCANDAL. IF Man Utd were found to be illegally “trading” for the last 20 yrs and had no grounds to obtain a “licence” to play in their own league and euro competitions wouldnt you think they deserve the punishments being dished out? In 1986 RFC* had not won a title in 8 yrs, these titles had been shared by Aberdeen, Dundee Utd & Celtic, scottish clubs regularly were succesfull in europe but that all changed when Davud Murray took over and started a trend of “financial doping” which inadvertantly killed many clubs to being competetive (inc Celtic) and puf some out the game in their pursuit of RFC*.

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  23. I have to agree about the Newcastle Mad Blog with the other bhoys. Great piece here.

    I think Best would thrive in the SPL, but even more we would need him in Europe as the physical attacker to score goals because Samaras doesn’t.

    Hey, do you guys have a centre half you don’t really need?

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  24. As a Celtic fan – no arguments from me – your comments are common sensed
    However I think you need to ensure you are holding onto Cisse and Ba before letting Best go

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  25. I will be sad to see Best go ,his link up play with Ba was very good .Yes he’s not as clinical as Cisse or Ba but he’s a different type of player ,more a support act if you like but a good honest pro who I wish the best of luck to should he go to Celtic. By the way ,good luck to the Celtic fans for next season ,nice to hear from other fans ,especially when they can hold a conversation without abuse. Think Forster will thrive at Celtic ,fair play to him for not settleing for the bench.

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  26. I think Cisse could get into our first team so I think we should leave Best in Newcastle and take him. At least he gets Champions league with us………. Hail Hail.

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  27. Could Celtic afford the huge outlay of 4 million pounds ? That would be a steal for the two guys in question by the way..

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  28. Nikko..dream on 😉

    With “Newcastle mad” you have to bear in mind they deliberately try to provoke a reaction, whether it be with fans from other clubs or Newcastle fans…big pinch of salt required 😉

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  29. Good to see that newcastle fans are bang on unlike many other english clubs fans. Think forster was an obvious one to happen and best is a good signing also. In my opinion tony stokes wont cut it in europe so best is needed. Still think we need a good centre back and would defo go for matt mills.

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  30. @ RICHIETOON

    It seems counter-productive though with Nu Mad as I just ignore his articles now, wouldn’t he rather people read his articles?

    He’s going for the tabloid journalism approach which I suppose can be successful, but I would rather read something with a bit more class.

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  31. you underestimate Forster, he has improved enormously since he has played for Celtic. For a big guy he wasnt great at cross balls and his kicking was very poor but he has worked hard at both (he comes out 5 mins before the 2nd half every game to practice more) as well as making many last gap saves in occasions were you would be thinking ‘goal’. Butland being called up to the Euros ahead of him is a travesty. I’m confident he’ll be capped one day

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  32. Hannibal….totally agree, I rarely read it myself. I think many may be put off reading regularly but I suspect it gets a shitload of 1 off hits or people who are so annoyed they feel the need to go on and hit back, not my cup of tea though.

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  33. Sorry to see Besty go. As someone said, he’s linked up well with Ba before Cisse arrived and he would have been a valuable player for a European campaign. He need replaced with a bit of quality. Not bothered by Forster as this is Krul’s club for the next 15 years (hopefully).

    Still, I’ll be disappointed if the leave for 4M. That’s a bit of a joke really. 6-8M for the pair would probably be fair

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  34. Tony…ironically most Newcastle fans have seen very little of him to form a “proper” opinion, as I said earlier I honestly believe that the FA are so clueless that because he has a Scottish sounding name + playing in Scotland= must be Scottish, that said half the squad out there don’t deserve to be so common sense and form hasn’t been used in the selection process at all.

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  35. MDS…I would have said £3.5m ish for Besty, Forster’s a bit more difficult to ask for a lot when he’s never featured for us.

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  36. That’s about right Richie. He’s a proven he can score in the Prem when given games and he is still young. Surely that’s worth more than 2m. Maybe hoots will pay more for him

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  37. Although he was a bit shaky at first Forster has improved massively and the Celtic fans have warmed to him. Don’t know much about Best but Neil Lennon seems to rate him and his judgement on players has been pretty sound so far so he must have something in his locker.

    The Celtic fans have a bit of a soft-spot for Newcastle as you like us live and breathe your club but guys like Nu Mad are in danger of giving you a bad name, his bitterness towards our club is quite baffling to us Celtic fans but I suppose there’s always one eh!

    Anyway good luck to you guys for next season.

    Hail Hail.

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  38. GG&W@38-Don’t know why he has an issue with you ,as you say baffling. I can only assume he’s a closet Rangers fan 😉

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