It's difficult to envisage Celtic shelling out £10million to sign Cameron Carter-Vickers permanently, journalist Stephen McGowan says. 

The lowdown

Centre-back Carter-Vickers is currently on a season-long loan from English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

He's started 10 of Celtic's 15 SPFL matches to date and all five of their Europa League fixtures.

According to WhoScored, he's been the Hoops' fifth-best performer in the league so far.

But Record Sport claim they will have to shell out an eight-figure sum to make the loan permanent.

That would break Celtic's transfer record, which currently stands at the £9.27million they paid for Odsonne Edouard back in 2018/19.

The latest

McGowan, The Scottish Daily Mail's chief football writer, says Carter-Vickers would be a 'quality' long-term addition, but he doesn't expect Celtic to meet Spurs' demands.

"I maybe just wonder if a Carter-Vickers and a Jota, just those couple of pieces of quality they should prioritise rather than in gambling on the Ismaila Soro-type settings," he said on Clyde One Superscoreboard, via Celts Are Here.

"But £10m? Again, I repeat, I don't know if that figure's accurate or not. I really don't.

"I think that's a bit rich, and I couldn't really see Celtic paying that anyway."

The verdict

Carter-Vickers is 'doing really well' at Parkhead and has established himself as a 'key player', Paddy Kenny says.

But will Celtic be willing to break records to keep him? They did turn a near-£14million profit transfer-wise in the summer, and they've paid big money for defenders before: Christopher Jullien cost them £7.2million in 2019.

And there's also a possibility that Spurs struggle to offload Carter-Vickers for the stated price tag and agree to compromise. Indeed, Danny Mills has told the Hoops to make an effort to 'renegotiate'.

Perhaps there is a deal to be done.

In other news, is this a statement of intent from Celtic?