IT wasn’t all that long ago that Fraser Forster would have hoped to have been Joe Hart’s successor as England’s number one goalkeeper. Now, it is Hart who is filling the rather large boots – both metaphorically and literally – of his friend and former national team deputy.

The new and old Celtic goalkeepers formed a tight bond when they were both selected for England’s 2014 World Cup squad, and have remained close ever since. In those days, Hart would badger Forster for details about what it was like to play for Celtic, not knowing that one day he would get the chance to experience it for himself.

It was perhaps those seeds that Forster planted in Hart’s mind that have led him to approaching this latest chapter in his largely glittering career with such excitement, with the 34-year-old hoping to find the new lease of life that Forster did during his various spells at the club.

“We’ve been in contact,” Hart said. “We’ve got a lot of support for each other.

“I’ve stopped trying to predict football a long time ago. All that time ago [at the 2014 World Cup], it wasn’t the path for me. However, things change quickly in football.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for Fraser. I love him on and off the field. And I’ve just been saying on a fans' forum, if I can manage even a smidgen of what he’s done here in terms of respect and how he’s revered at Celtic, I’ll have done alright.

“Fraser did talk a lot about Celtic – but mainly because I was asking him. I was interested in what he was up to at the club and in Scotland.

“I like Fraser off the field too, so we’ve got a good relationship when it comes to that. And he had nothing but great things to say about everything at the club and his life.

“He was loved here and he was loved for a reason – because he was playing his best football.

“You can be anywhere on the planet, when you’re playing well and you’ve got a good relationship with the fans, there aren’t many better places than Celtic.”

Forster isn’t the only goalkeeper to have experienced something of a career renaissance at Celtic in recent years, with Craig Gordon also resurrecting himself as a top-level performer under the guidance of Stevie Woods.

Woods has been unable to bring the best out in Vasilis Barkas since his big-money move from AEK Athens last summer, but Hart believes he is on the same wavelength as Celtic’s goalkeeping coach when it comes to his own development, even at this point in his career.

For Hart, his success depends less on trying to be the goalkeeper he once was before spells as a back-up at Burnley and Tottenham, and more on making the most of his attributes as they are now.

“We kind of discussed it [on Tuesday] night and we discussed this whole kind of ‘getting back to something’. We agreed it was a waste of time.

“We’re going to work together, I’m going to work with the goalkeepers that are here, and I’m going to try to get to the best level possible for me right now.

“The past is the past. And if I want to reference it in a good way then, obviously, I’ve had highs. If I want to reference it in a bad way then there have been lows.

“But there’s only a desire to move forward right now and try to make me the best goalkeeper I can be currently. That’s the plan.”

In hindsight, Celtic’s decision not to follow through with their interest in Hart last summer may now be one they regret, given the struggles of Barkas in particular.

While Scott Bain and even Conor Hazard proved to be able deputies at times, Celtic have been crying out for a settled number one since Forster decided not to return to the club.

Did Hart think his chance at Celtic had passed him by?

“I did think that, if you want me to be honest,” he said.

“It was something I was very keen on, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen.

“But you can’t predict football and there’s absolutely no point in trying to.

“You can’t take things too personally when you get a knockback because you could have exactly the same club with someone else in charge and a different opinion and different vision seeing something else in you.

“It’s a game of opinions. And right now the opinion was to bring me in – and my opinion was I wanted to come.”

It is now down to the opinion of his new manager Ange Postecoglou on whether or not Hart is ready to be thrown straight into tonight’s Europa League qualifier against FK Jablonec in the Czech Republic, but there is no doubting the keeper’s own verdict.

“I’m very excited about this move, so yes I’d be delighted to be picked,” he said.

“I understand it’s been an interesting couple of days and I’ve already said that I appreciate how accommodating Celtic were in making this happen. Both parties were clear they were up for it.

“I’d like to think I’m ready now to play. It’s obviously down to the manager and how he wants to play things.”