CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS holds the key to agreeing a £6million permanent switch to Celtic.
The 24-year-old central defender has impressed during his season-long loan at the champions and has already given the go-ahead for the move to be complete, according to a report in the Daily Record.
However, there is no signature on the contract as yet although all indications are good that the 24-year-old US international, who has just been brought into his adopted nation’s squad for the first time in three years, will pledge his future to Ange Postecoglou and the Parkhead club.
There is an agreed transfer option in the temporary deal that was originally agreed on the last day of the summer deadline which Celtic have until June 15 to activate.
The fee could rise to £10million with add-ons such as percentages of a sell-on fee which is normal in current transfer contract negotiations.
BALL AT MY FEET…Cameron Carter-Vickers had an impressive loan season in the hoops.
The Hoops powerbrokers are currently encountering the same demands with Benfica in their pursuit of Filipe Jota with a £6.5million valuation already put in place. The Lisbon giants are looking for a whopping 30 per cent as a cut of profits of any future move for the 23-year-old winger. That is not anticipated to be a deal breaker.
Celtic are ahead of the queue of suitors for Carter-Vickers whose impressive form north of the border has reportedly attracted interest from Everton, Newcastle and newly-promoted Fulham and Bournemouth.
The transfer is on a tightrope at the moment and the Hoops only have to look back to last summer and Jack Hendry’s situation after his season on loan at Belgian club KV Oostende.
The central defender, who was bought by Brendan Rodgers from Dundee for £1.25million in January 2018, rejected the opportunity to go back to Parkhead where he still had a year of his terms to run.
PRIZE GUYS…Cameron Carter-Vickers celebrates the Premiership success with Josip Juranovic, Carl Starfelt, Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh.
After a successful year in the top flight, where the player reignited his Scotland international career, the Belgian club were eager to get Hendry on a permanent contract at the pre-agreed price of £1.75million.
The situation had change dramatically at Celtic since the 27-year-old back-four performer had left 12 months previously.
Neil Lennon had departed as manager following the team’s spectacular fall from grace and central defence was going to be a problem for any incoming boss with Kristoffer Ajer obviously wanting out while Shane Duffy, after a dreadful loan spell at his boyhood idols, returned to parent club Brighton.
Hendry elected to leave with the fallen champions in turmoil following the collapse of the move for Eddie Howe as Lennon’s replacement while there had been no announcement of interest in Postecoglou, as CQN reported last year.
ROARING SUCCESS…Jack Hendry has been a hit in Belgium.
At the time, the cultured centre-back admitted: “I wanted to wait until the end of the season and KV were constantly pushing, but there was very little communication from Celtic.
“For me, it was key to be at a club who really wanted me and Oostende went all out to get a deal done.
“That convinced me to sign there rather than going back to Celtic with one year on my contract and not knowing what the future was going to hold.”
Three weeks after KV Oostende landed their player for £1.75million, they sold him to Brugge for £5million. Celtic received something in the region of £700,000 for their cut of the sell-on clause.
Back then, the ball was in Hendry’s court, much the same situation today with Carter-Vickers, who is due to come out of contract at Spurs in June 2023.
The man known as ‘The Fridge’ to his Hoops team-mates will have the final say.
Everyone of a Celtic persuasion fervently hopes Carter-Vickers will give the green light to a long-term deal.
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