Even the Dutch media are speculating who Ronald Koeman might be looking to bring in to cover Fraser Forster at the beginning of next season.

One thing looks certain and that is Saints are going to have to start weighing up possible goalkeeping targets for next season with Fraser Forster likely to miss at least a month or two at the start of it.

The difficulty though is that Saints or most clubs for that matter, have to find a keeper capable of stepping into the breach for possible extended periods but also content to sit on the bench for most of the time.

That means that usually clubs look at two types of keeper in this situation, either a keeper with bags of experience coming towards the end of his career or the polar opposite a promising youngster at the start of it.

Now it could be said that in the three keepers Saints have understudying Forster they have both classes already at the club, but the reality is that Kelvin Davis is probably not up to the job, Paulo Gazzaniga looked at one time he might be but has perhaps suffered too much trauma in his 3 seasons here that some supporters might make it very hard for him to overcome that trauma, he would need to be totally flawless and no goalkeeper is that. Finally Cody Cropper who has not been near a first team at any club so is a very unknown quantity.

The Dutch media have started the speculation off for us by suggesting a keeper that Ronald Koeman knows well, De Telegraaf has suggested that Koeman may well be interested in Maarten Stekelenburg.

Stekelenburg at 32 is still young enough to be able to be competitive but that perhaps is the issue, although in recent years his career has gone downhill a little he will want a club where he can be number 1 and perhaps when Forster is fit that will not be the case.

Currently he is at Monaco on a season long loan from Fulham and he fits the bill of players that Koeman looks for, those with a hunger to get their career's back on track after suffering setbacks.

Stekelenburg's career was going swimmingly till heleft Ajax where he worked with Koeman and joined Roma although he did Ok in Italy, Internationally he lost his place not just as first choice where he played in the 2010 World Cup final but in the squad itself.

If he though Fulham would revive his career he was wrong joining a team that was destined for freefall to eventual relegation a change of manager to Felix magath saw him dropped

In the summer of 2014 he joined Monaco on a season long loan as Fulham looked to get big earners off their books as they faces the Championship, but this hasnt really worked out either and he has rarely played spending the season sitting on the bench barring the occasional outing.

So he looks set to return to Fulham in the summer with two years remaining on his contract and Saints may attempt to prise him away either on another loan or a permanent deal as they attempt to plug the gap in the early months of the season.

The problem though will be that Stekelenburg will be looking for a club where he can be first choice and although Saints can offer him that initially if Forster's injury takes longer to heal, it is the situation when Forster returns that will be the issue, the Dutch keeper will want to at least have the chance to battle it out for the number 1 spot and certainly Artur Boruc did not feel that would be the case last summer.

There will be much speculation in the next couple of months about just who Saints will look to bring in this summer to plug the goalkeeping gap and Stekelenburg is just the first, however it does have all the trademarks of a Koeman signing so perhaps the first suggestion might actually turn out to be the solution.

Photo: Action Images

A1079 added 09:37 - Mar 27 Surely, and no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong, but if not now, at the end of the season, Boruc has to return to us whether he likes it or not (assuming he is still contracted to us). We have to put ourselves first. I think Koeman did get it wrong by promising Forster he would be first choice but I guess that was done as an enticement to Forster to join us. On the other side of this story, if it is true, we are potentially creating a problem down the line, which could bite us at anytime, if we keep looking across the North Sea for solutions to our team/squad problems or new additions.

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SanMarco added 12:32 - Mar 27 Hello A1079 - not able to correct you because I am totally confused over whether there is any Boruc possibility - he is after all better than Davis. I do agree on the second point about all the eggs in the RoKo basket - Barca will call one day...
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schatfield added 12:34 - Mar 27 Boruc's contract runs out at the end of the season - he is free to join whomever then
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BoondockSaint added 12:52 - Mar 27 Koeman didn't have to promise Forster the starting job-all Forster had to do was watch video of the previous season to know he would be the number one!
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