Saints fans may think that Fraser Forster is no longer a Saints player after being pictured wearing a Tottenham Hotspur shirt and press releases saying that the North London Yobbos have signed him, but at the moment he is still a Southampton player.
Tottenham Hotspur have announced that they have signed Fraser Forster from Southampton and have posted rather fetching pictures of the keeper pointing at the camera in his new club's attire.
But the truth is he hasn't actually officially become a Spurs player and still remains contracted to Saints until June 30th when his current contract will expire.
But more than that, the transfer window hasn't even opened yet, it officially does tomorrow on Friday June 10th, but Forster will still not be able to call himself a Spurs player at least not just yet.
Spurs have been able to announce the signing of Forster due to a ruling that says that clubs are free to negotiate with players whose contracts have less than six months to run. The rule was brought in to protect players' interests and ensure they have the best possible chance of securing a contract in the event of their release.
However the players contracts all run until June 30th, so unless the player's former employers agree to release him early and let him sign then in Fraser Forster's case he remains an employee of Southampton Football Club.
I am sure that if Tottenham contacted Saints and asked them to release him tomorrow, then we would bite their hand off, Forster who is reputably on £90k a week at St Mary's would then be off our books and instead of paying him something in the region of £360 k for the month of June to sit on a beach somewhere doing nothing , Spurs could bear that cost.
However they don't want to do that, Forster won't be on anywhere near that Salary in North London, perhaps around half of that amount, but Daniel Levy a man who knows the price of a pound, doesn't want Forster on his books until he can get him on a training ground.
There is no law saying when a club can announce a transfer however they don't take over ownership of the player until he is registered and if he want's to sit out the remainder of his Saints contract that will be on July 1st when he officially leaves Saints, on that day Forster will check his bank account to make sure that his annual loyalty bonus has been paid and then he will become a Spurs player.
Spurs announcing it now and showing him off in pictures is a risky business though, they have shown their hand and counted their chicken, they could be left with egg on their face if another club, a bigger name than Spurs , Liverpool say or Torquay United suddenly loses out on the man they were chasing and turns to Forster, there is nothing to stop them offering the player more money and stealing him from under Spurs noses and there is nothing they can do about that.
That is why canny clubs keep their signings close to their chests until the ink is dry on the contract and it has been registered with the Premier League, until then the new signing could pull out.
This doesn't happen that often, but from time to time it does and a player is pictured wearing or holding what at that time is going to be his new club's shirt, for events to suddenly take a different course.
Good luck to Fraser Forster though, whilst i am no lover of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, the way they do business and the fans arrogance, I truly wish him well and thank him for his service to Southampton FC.