Former Celtic striker John Hartson has claimed the Scottish giants might not be able to afford to sign Cameron Carter-Vickers on a permanent basis from Spurs.
Carter-Vickers has not made a senior appearance for Tottenham for more than four years but the centre-back has impressed on various loan spells over the last couple of years.
The 23-year-old is having another fabulous campaign at Celtic at the moment, having established himself as a mainstay in Ange Postecoglou’s backline.
The Bhoys have to option to sign the USA international permanently at the end of the season, with some sources suggesting they would have to pay £10m to do.
Journalist Ekrem Konur revealed this week that Celtic have already opened talks with Spurs over a permanent deal for the defender.
Hartson has now revealed that he has spoken to former Spurs manager David Pleat about Carter-Vickers. The former Celtic striker explained that while the centre-back is unlikely to break into the Tottenham first-team, he might also be out of Celtic’s reach.
Hartson told The Go Radio Football Show: “Well I don’t think he’ll be cheap, according to quoted figures. I spoke to David Pleat, I speak to him quite a lot.
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“He does a lot of scouting for Tottenham and he’s nowhere near that first team, Carter Vickers. So even if he goes back to Spurs he’s only gonna go out on loan again.
“Conte could look at him and think well, I can do with someone like that.
“But I don’t know whether that’s in Celtic’s budget, but if Ange can get it done, that’d be fantastic.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Whether or not Celtic take up the option to sign Carter-Vickers next summer, I expect Spurs to cash in on the centre-back. Plenty of Championship clubs will likely be prepared to pay decent money for the 23-year-old in the summer, given his showing at Bournemouth and Luton over the last two years.
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