Celtic expecting swift conclusion to Carter-vickers and Jota talks
The conclusion to on-going discussions with loanees Cameron Carter-vickers and Jota over signing permanent deals with the now Scottish champions are likely in “the near future” with “an end date in place”, according to Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou.
The futures of the pair, who have excelled in a league and League Cup double-winning campaign, have been the subject of feverish speculation for months.
Celtic hold a £6.5 million buy-out option with winger Jota’s parent club Benfica, and are understood to be willing to pay a similar fee to Tottenham Hotspur to retain Cartervickers, should the two players elect to commit to remaining in Glasgow beyond the current season. That campaign comes to an end for Celtic with their trophy presentation day at home to Motherwell today, and thereafter Postecoglou believes the duo’s decisions over their next steps should quickly crystallise.
“We’ve been working for quite a while on talking to the boys and their representatives,” he said. “With all these things, you need everyone to come to the same place to get it done. We’ll continue to talk to both the boys and their representatives and hope to get an outcome in the near future. I think they’d want that as much as we do, so I wouldn’t expect that it would take too long after the season finishes.
“But at the same time, with both Cam and Jota, they both wanted to focus on bringing the trophy back here to Celtic Park. We had an agreement along the way with both boys that our roles were to make sure we prioritised what happened on the field and that stuff with other people would take care of itself. I wouldn’t expect it to drag on for too long. There is an end date for these things and we hope it’s a conclusion that we are all happy with.”
Two guaranteed final bows at Celtic Park for trophy day will be Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton, who have decided to move on following stints that have placed them among the club’s most decorated players, each giving almost a decade’s service. “In football sometimes it’s hard to get the right kind of ending to a story,” said Postecoglou. “[So] It’s just a great send off for two unbelievable servants of this football club.”