Ange hoping Europe will entice Celts’ loan star duo

ANGE POSTECOGLOU hopes the lure of Champions League football can help persuade loanees Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota to commit to permanent transfers at Celtic.

Signed on a season-long deal from Tottenham, defender CarterVickers has been linked with a clutch of Premier League clubs, with Leicester City the latest to be credited with an interest.

Manager Postecoglou knows the money on offer in England’s top flight dwarfs his club’s wage structure, but he believes Celtic offers something unique.

Both Carter-Vickers and Benfica winger Jota have excelled in Glasgow this season, with Europe a big part of the experience for both.

And, with the winners of the Premiership almost certain to qualify automatically for the group stage of next season’s Champions League, both will have a chance to play at the very highest level if they can help deliver the title.

Celtic’s focus has temporarily switched to the Scottish Cup and

tomorrow night’s quarter-final tie away to Dundee United, but Postecoglou knows the league offers the key to the club’s transfer ambitions.

He said: ‘Champions League football should be our goal every year — and if we get there, it will be an attraction for players to stay and also for others to come here.

‘So it’s a two-way thing.

‘Both Cameron and Jota are saying all they need to say to me with their performances. They have been outstanding contributors all year and great young men, too, and I am loving having them as part of this football club.

‘The appeal to come to this club is playing in front of 60,000 people every second week, competing in Europe, competing for trophies and playing for a club that’s universally known around the world.

‘The players have to want to be here and we have to want them here. When you have that thinking, I’m sure we will get a deal done.’

The deals to sign both loanees included options to buy, yet each deal would be contingent on the player’s consent.

Postecoglou accepts that the reality that Celtic sometimes must sell top stars to richer clubs could influence matters.

‘I would never deny that,’ he said. ‘We could get offers for some other players, depending on how we finish the season.

‘That’s the choices they make. There’s no problem.

‘But while you are here with me, you give everything you can to this football club to make it successful — and if you do that then whatever your next step is I am happy for you.’