Cameron Carter-Vickers is the rock at the heart of the Hoops defence – and he’s going to take some shifting from his Parkhead home.
The big USA ace has played a huge role in Celtic’s recent success and it’s no surprise teams across Europe and beyond have taken notice. Recent talk of German cracks Bayer Leverkusen sniffing around was slapped down by Brendan Rodgers and the interest never got strong enough to land in Carter-Vickers’ inbox.
But the defender isn’t too fussed anyway. The 27-year-old insisted he’s not looking to see if there is any greener grass elsewhere as he feels comfortable right where he is. Carter-Vickers said: “I feel very settled here. To be fair, when I see stuff like that, I don’t really take much note of it because you never know how much truth there is to it unless obviously, you’re told directly. Which I wasn’t. So again, I don’t take much note of it.
“I just kind of focus on what I’ve got going on here. Do you take it as a compliment? Yeah, I think for me I’m always a team-first kind of guy where obviously I want to perform, so it helps the team.
“But it’s definitely nice when you see stuff like that because it does show you that people are noticing what you’re doing and that’s good. I think it’s just like anything in life, while you’re doing something you want to do to the best of your ability.
“So whether there is interest or not at this current time, and for any of the players, we’re at Celtic and we want to do well for the team. To be honest it’s not something I’ve really thought about too deeply but I definitely feel settled here and I’ve enjoyed my time here so far and hope to continue enjoying it.”
Celtic fans will be relieved to hear the stalwart at the back isn’t batting his eyes at any suitors. And they will also be thrilled to learn the big fella feels the injury issues that held him back at the start of the season are firmly behind him now.
Carter-Vickers missed a chunk of the start of last term after going through knee surgery towards the end of the Treble winning campaign previously. But earlier in this one he was forced to spend a spell on the sidelines with the kind of problem that might have seemed trivial to some but it was more than a pain to the man himself.
Carter-Vickers said: “It was my toe. I played a few games on it and then it just got too painful so I had to miss a few games and the toes take ages to recover, so I’m still aware of it but compared to what I was feeling earlier in the season it’s nothing compared to that.
“I just landed on it from a header and I just kind of rolled over on the front of my toe and snapped it back. There’s some ligament damage in there.
“I know it’s only a toe but it is pretty painful. You don’t actually realise how much walking around every day how much pressure goes through that toe, especially when you’re playing football when you’re changing direction and stuff like that.”
The big toe is not a problem any more and Carter-Vickers is back in the side and back to his best. The former Tottenham man rarely puts a foot wrong for Celts and he’s the backbone of a defensive unit that has conceded just eight goals all season and managed to rack up 17 clean sheets in 22 league games.
Carter-Vickers is not a man to pore over stats, but he does take pride in the record – as well as his ability to do the business on a weekly basis. He said: “I feel good and I feel like I’ve consistently been playing well for a while, and for me it’s just about maintaining that. It’s something I definitely take pride in is that consistency level and that’s something I always want to do and continue to do.
“Up until last season I didn’t really have any injuries or big injuries through my whole career so there’s always going to be a point where I start to get injuries big and little ones and it’s just something as a player you’ve got to deal with and try and come back as strong as you left.”
It’s just as well Carter-Vickers is fit and firing with the games coming thick and fast. Celtic had their surprise bump Rangers but it’s been foot down for most of the season as the Hoops opened up a 15 point lead at the top of the Premiership.
Rodgers’ men saw off Ross County in Baltic Dingwall at the weekend and it’s back on the bus for Dundee tonight. Celts have the Scottish Cup coming up this Saturday and then it’s back to Champions League action with the crucial clash with Young Boys in Glasgow.
Carter-Vickers insisted dealing with the Dens men is the only thing on his mind. He said: “I think every away game this time of year is always a challenge. But I think as a group we kind of look forward to those games.
“We know the pitch is not going to be great and it’s going to be freezing but it’s about kind of maintaining our professionalism and trying to reach as good of a performance level as we can football wise, and also showing that fight, determination and we think if we do that we’ll win games.”
“I think it’ll be similar to Saturday. It’ll be another difficult game but again for us it’s about kind of focusing on trying to play as well as we can no matter what the conditions are and go from there.”