Former Celtic striker John Hartson has urged the Hoops to sign Cameron Carter-Vickers, claiming ‘people at Spurs’ want to sell him this summer.
The Lowdown: Strong interest in Carter-Vickers
The American has been a fantastic signing by Celtic, joining on loan from Spurs last summer and producing a string of rock-solid performances at centre-back.
Carter-Vickers has been an aerial monster for Ange Postecoglou’s side, winning an average of 4.0 and 3.2 aerial duels per game in the Scottish Premiership and Europa League respectively.
Celtic have been strongly linked with signing the 24-year-old on a permanent basis this summer but numerous clubs are also thought to be battling for his signature.
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The Latest: Hartson urges Hoops to pounce
Speaking to The Daily Record, Hartson, 47, claimed that Spurs are willing to sell Carter-Vickers, calling for the Hoops to snap him up:
“I speak to people at Spurs and I know for a fact they want to sell Carter-Vickers. He’s been on loan four or five times and they feel he’s not going back to Spurs, so they want to do a deal with somebody.
“You can talk about the forwards, Jota, Liel Abada, Kyogo, whose numbers have been frightening. Joe Hart has been brilliant. But you’ve got to look at Carter-Vickers, he’s been the dominant one. Carl Starfelt has come onto a game, but he’s shown weaknesses and defensive frailties at times.
“It’s Carter-Vickers who has been that man-mountain alongside him and taken a lot of pressure off him. To do that for your other centre-half, I think he’s been outstanding.
“He would be as important a signing as Jota would be because we know that Celtic are a forward-thinking team, get on the front foot with a high intensity, press, and pressure.
“As soon as they lose it there’s a trigger, four and five players around the ball, they don’t go in ones and twos, they don’t leave players 40 yards behind.
“Reo Hatate pushes the forwards, the defence comes up to the halfway line. They’re a forward-thinking team who almost just want to outscore the opposition.
“That’s what they want to do so you need to have really good defenders to go on to another level where you’re up against better opposition and better quality of player as they can hurt you at the highest level. So they need Carter-Vickers in terms of a defender.”
The Verdict: Key piece of summer business
Signing Carter-Vickers permanently has to be considered one of Celtic’s key pieces of summer transfer business, given the impact he has made at Parkhead.
He has been described as a ‘most crucial’ player for the Hoops by Chris Sutton and the partnership he has forged with Carl Starfelt has arguably been the backbone to Celtic’s league success this season.
Missing out on Carter-Vickers now would be a hammer blow and the hope is that his head isn’t turned by any potential Premier League interest in the coming weeks and months.
In other news, one Celtic player has been backed to leave the club. Find out who it is here.