Chris Sutton believes that Celtic can pick up £20m by selling Cameron Carter-Vickers in the summer.
The defender has had an injury interrupted season on the back of two outstanding campaigns under Ange Postecoglou either side of a £6m move from Spurs after a variety of loans to English Championship sides.
Celtic’s transfer model rarely involves an outstanding talent staying beyond three years with they key aspect being to sell at maximum value and to have a successor already at the club.
Gus Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki were thought to be part of that succession plan but Liam Scales has emerged as Celtic’s most reliable defender this season with signs that Stephen Welsh is rated higher by Brendan Rodgers than Postecoglou.
Celtic have no pressing financial requirements to sell this month but at the end of this season things could look very different with the turnover of players likely to accelerate.
In the Daily Record Sutton looks ahead to an interesting summer at his old club:
Celtic had to spend £6m to get Jota signed. Paying that little more ended up netting them £25m when the Saudis came calling. In the same summer, Carter-Vickers cost the same £6m. If the English do come knocking in the summer, I’d say you are looking at another £20m.
That’s really what the fans want to see. Chunky investments bringing even healthier returns. I’m fairly sure Carter-Vickers and O’Riley will stay until at least the summer, but they’ll go one day and their bumper transfer fees when departing will just push the narrative of pay higher, sell higher. Fans just want ready-made players who can go straight into the side and make it better.
Despite being much younger than both of them, the arrival of Carter-Vickers instantly improved the performances of Josip Juranovic and Carl Starefelt who were also bought during the summer 2021 transfer window masterminded by Dom McKay.
Carter-Vickers won’t be involved on Sunday against Buckie Thistle but is expected to be in place for the SPFL match at home to Ross County on January 27.
I had wondered if Nottingham Forest being one of the supposedly pursuing clubs offered the possibility of a cash-plus-player deal during this window with McKenna out of favour there due to his contract situation. He is a comparably dominant, physical centre-back who Brendan was interested in back in his Aberdeen days and would be another to increase our ‘jock quota’ for European games.
But it’s probably all just paper talk anyway!
So Sutton reckons the fans will be happy with the £20m we’d get for CCV?
If our board spent that money on a couple of first team ready replacements, then maybe, but knowing our board, they’d squirrel it away and then pay themselves massive bonuses.