Cameron Carter Vickers will walk-out at Hampden this afternoon as a Celtic player, not an Old Firm (sic) player as the Daily Record curiously describe him this morning. The central defender is on a season long loan from Tottenham where it’s probably fair to say he’s not going to have much of a future there so could end up signing on a permanent deal at the end of the season, but not for the £10m that the same paper had previously quoted citing additional add-ons as the reason why the expected price would have to almost double.
A decent attempt to burst a Celtic bubble that one. Celtic incidentally have won the League Cup 19 times so can make it twenty today with a win over Hibs. theRangers have never won a major cup competition, the nearest they came was reaching a couple of finals going down to Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final in 2016 and to Celtic in the 2019 League Cup Final.
Those two cup winners will meet today and for Cameron Vickers it will be the first cup final of his career, Daily Record reports. “I’ve not played in many finals. I was involved in the FA Youth Cup semi-final and at Peterborough we reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup. This is my first proper final and that comes with its own pressures.
“But so does playing at Bournemouth trying to get back into the Premier League. That has pressures too. The way I look at things is that it is just a game and we have all played a lot of games of football.
“It’s definitely an important match though. It’s a new group of players going out together for our first final and to get that win would be important. The squad already have a lot of belief, we are together and if we can manage to beat Hibs in the final then it will build on that.”
Cameron Carter Vickers clearly has no regrets about coming up to Scotland to play for Ange Postecoglou’s new look Celtic side for this season at least. “I love games that are so important and ones with 50,000 fans. The semi-final at Hampden was one of the best atmospheres I have been involved in so I’m looking forward to the same this time.
“My mum and dad and a few family members are coming up. Since I have been here they haven’t had much opportunity to come and watch me so are looking forward to this game.
“Playing for Celtic in general brings its own pressure as you are expected to win every game. That does help you as a player because you always have to be on it. The pressure helps motivate you. Every game in the league, in Europe or in the cup, there is that expectation. That is definitely something different to what I have experienced before. It keeps you on it every game whether it is away at Ross County or in a cup final.”
Wednesday night’s dramatic late win at Dingwall illustrates the need for Celtic to win every game, with so much at stake and of course having to do it the hard way, with for example the winning goal from Anthony Ralston coming about from a corner awarded by Alan Muir after the ball was deflected away from goal by an outstretched Ross County arm. Yesterday the same referee gave theRangers a penalty at Ibrox for the very same thing and that allowed them to win the match.
“As the game went on it became a bit difficult with us going down to 10 men. County were pretty organised but we kept our belief in the way we wanted to play to get the result – and it was an important win,” Cameron stated.
“The manager has a way he wants us to play and all of the players have bought into that. We all want to play in the way that he does. It’s enjoyable for us and for it to pay off on Wednesday in the way it did was important,” he said.
Today the pressure of the league is set to one side as Cameron Carter Vickers and his teammates look to deliver the first trophy of the Postecoglou era at Celtic. They will have the belief in the process even of they are short on players due to the injury crisis in recent weeks, particularly among the forward players. Cameron won’t know if he’s playing alongside Carl Starfelt – who took a bad knock to his nose (ignored by Muir who then booked him for his protest then shortly afterwards sent him off, theRangers players don’t have to worry about receiving red cards, that’s something only ever delivered to their opponents in Scottish domestic matches. Curiously though it doesn’t seem to be the case when they play in European games. Funny that.
“The spirit we have in the squad is such that we are all confident in one another when we’re playing in games. We see our team-mates every day in training and know that they are all good players and will contribute when needed,” Cameron added.
“We have boys like Callum McGregor, Joe Hart and others who have played in big finals before and they are important players in a group that is fairly new and young.
“They have that bit more experience and know the right things to say before the game and inside the dressing room so that can only help the group to perform its best.”
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