Carter-Vickers would be wise to stay at Celtic

CAMERON CARTERVICKERS was out on a limb last summer. The Tottenham Hotspur defender, a staple of pre-season outings under Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo, knew his forthcoming season would be spent – as it had been for the previous four campaigns – away from the North London club.

He was once hailed in reverential tones by those in the know at Spurs, some even putting his performances at youth team level in the same bracket as those of Ledley King at a similar age. Carter-Vickers seemed to confirm those glowing reports with a debut for the United States Under-20s, aged 17, long before he had even got a sniff of the Tottenham first team.

But it never quite happened for the centre-half. Undersized, and ponderous on the ball at times, a succession of loan moves to the Championship and League 1 followed, and until this undoubtedly excellent season at Celtic that looked the limit to his abilities.

A dreadful mistake in Spurs’ Europa Conference League qualifier against Pacos de Ferreira did little to convince management or supporters that Carter-Vickers was a late developer in the manner that Harry Kane had been.

At Celtic, though, CarterVickers has look composed and commanding and has been a menace in the opposition penalty area as his four goals will testify.

Now 24, the defender has a decision to make. The noise coming out of Celtic – delivered by manager Ange Postecoglou on Friday – is that he will make it as early as this week. After Saturday’s 6-0 win over Dundee United, the player was asked by Sky’s Luke Shanley if his future lies at Parkhead with Celtic holding an option to sign him for £6 million, and somewhat ominously he replied: “I’m just enjoying today at the moment. We’ll see.”

With Newcastle rumoured to be interested in taking the defender to St James’ Park (he previously spent a season on loan at Bournemouth under Eddie Howe) it would be a shock if he opted to make Celtic his home next season.

But a return to the Premier League might not be the best option for the player. As good as CarterVickers has been this season, he is perhaps just short of being elite. At Celtic there is the chance to grow and a good way to test that theory would be Champions League group stage football. Shine on that stage and he will have no shortage of takers next summer.