The big news from last night wasn’t Scotland’s ignominious exit from the World Cup, in a really dire performance which was frustrating to watch. It was Cameron Carter Vickers admitting that he will leave Spurs this year for a more “settled” footballing life at a club where, as he puts it, he can feel at home. That club is almost certainly Celtic.
The more I watch this guy, the more he talks, the more I listen to him, the clearer it becomes that he is exactly the sort of person we want at Celtic in the long term, and the manager clearly knows this and has known it from the start.
Carter Vickers has the mentality that Ange wants to see at Celtic Park.
He comes across as someone who has a very clear, very direct, career progression plan, someone who now just wants first team football on a regular basis and to play in front of a support which backs him up and makes him feel as if he belongs, and he’s found that at Celtic.
I always wondered why Patrick Roberts didn’t fight for the chance to be at Celtic on a permanent basis. He chased the dream of being a City player long after it was obvious that it wasn’t going to come off.
The most important thing Carter Vickers has done here is realise that it’s over at Spurs, accepted that and decided to move on.
The second important thing is that he’s decided not to chase money, at least not right now when what he needs most is stability, support and regular games. That’s a major decision for a player who has no shortage of interest and offers … but he wants the right one, the right fit, and that’s the sort of mind-set that Ange values as much as talent.
What was it he said? “We don’t just want good players; we want good people.”
Carter Vickers is clearly both.
That is important, and we should welcome this signing like few others in our recent history when it’s completed, because this guy is a bit special and not just as a footballer but as a positive force at the club.
I hope he’s with us for many, many years.
I hope you’re right James. Signing CCV may be the most important bit of business Celtic complete this summer.
I can’t get my hopes up though. Maybe I’m just getting too cynical in my advanced age. But one thing that keeps coming back to me is something Kieran Devlin wrote about several months ago. Last summer when Spurs were sending him out on loan, CCV’s first preferance wasn’t Celtic – it was Newcastle, for reasons that were never explained. Newcastle had no interest at the time which begs the question why CCV wanted to go there in the first place? It certainly wasn’t trophies, and as a loan move it wouldn’t have been money either. I don’t think we should discount the possibility that he’s – at least in his own mind – describing Newcastle when talking about his future. I hope I’m wrong on that. Either way we should know in a couple weeks.
Cameron Carter Vickers is a player we all want to see sign for the club permanently, but i suppose its down to him himself to decide where his future lies.
He moves to Celtic, he knows he’ll be at a club where he’s adored by the support, he’ll get games, a chance to win silverware and a crack at European football, while a move elsewhere he’s guaranteed none of that.
On the Scotland game last night, i find it hard to believe that a team who fought so hard for the opportunity to go to a World Cup could surrender so meakly; they looked like they didn’t even try for most of that match, well not until they were a couple of goals down! They didn’t even look like a team, more a bunch of individuals chasing shadows and their shape/system was abysmal; the Ukrainians made them look like a bunch of amateurs!
The only highlight for me from last nights Scotland game was the manager Steve Clarke looking like Ming the Merciless with those eyebrows!
Hear hear James I always read your blogs and …there always interesting and to the point not only what you say is true but I can see ccv being a potential captain .. yes I know there’s a couple before him in calmac and joe hart but he’s only 24 and still learning. Keep up the good work HH
Could not have put it any better, spot on
The type of article that makes us stand out