According to The Sun, Southampton will look to replace Fraser Forster with Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart if the England international decides to leave St Mary’s this summer.

The 28-year-old is understood to be attracting interest from Everton manager Ronald Koeman, who is keen to sign a new stopper this summer with Joel Robles and Maarten Stekelenburg his only two options at the current time.

The Dutchman was impressed with Forster during his spell in charge at St Mary’s and is said to be keen on being reunited with the tall keeper, who has struggled to replicate the form he has shown in the past this season.

The 6’7” goalkeeper has come under fire from some Saints supporters this season because of a lack of quality in a number of areas of his game, and it is something that is reflected in his stats from the Premier League.

While he has kept an impressive nine clean sheets in 26 appearances, some of his other stats will certainly be concerning manager Claude Puel.

Forster is making just 1.46 saves per game and 1.12 per goal – something that won’t surprise too many Saints supporters with most on target shots seeming to beat him – while his 85% claim success for someone of his height is slightly surprising.

Worst of all is the 28-year-old’s distribution though, which has just a 51% success rate.

When you compare to this to Hart’s stats for the season during his loan spell with Serie A outfit Torino, then Puel may feel that he would be getting an upgrade if he could convince the Three Lions number one to move to St Mary’s.

In 25 outings in Italy, the Manchester City loanee has made 2.8 saves per game and 1.84 per goal, while his 95% claim success and 71% distribution success are considerably better than the stats of his England teammate.

If Hart was to join Southampton in the summer, they would know that they would be getting a safe pair of hands between the sticks.