CAMERON Carter-Vickers last night admitted his spell at Celtic has been among the most enjoyable of his career – and he is open-minded about the possibility of making his stay at Parkhead permanent.

Carter-Vickers, who is set to line up for the Glasgow club in their penultimate Europa League group game against Bayer Leverkusen in Germany tonight, moved to Scotland from Spurs on a season-long loan back in August.

The United States internationalist has been a regular starter in Ange Postecoglou’s team since arriving and has impressed supporters with his committed displays both at home and abroad.

Celtic have an option to buy the 23-year-old defender, who has gone out on loan seven times in the past four years, at the end of the 2021/22 campaign if they meet his parent club’s asking price.  

The player stressed he is focusing on performing well rather than his own future – the visitors needed to win in the BayArena this evening to keep alive their chances of reaching the last 16 - but conceded he would consider a long-term deal.

“I have really enjoyed it,” he said. “The staff and the players have been really good with me and that’s helped me. It’s still early days, but for me personally, and as a team, we’ve got to keep going and keep the consistency.

“I would say it’s definitely up there. Last season I was at Bournemouth and we got to the play-offs in the Championship. The year before that I was at Luton and when I went there in January we were at the bottom and we managed to stay up.

“So I have had a few good ones and a few where I have learned a lot, but this is definitely one where I am learning a lot and I’m enjoying my football.

“I feel like I have adapted. That is partly down to the coaches and the players here making me feel so welcome from the beginning. The coach has put in a system which is easy to adapt to and play in. That has been helpful.”

Asked about the prospect of him signing full-time with Celtic in the summer, Carter-Vickers said: “It is something I am open to, but I haven’t given it much thought at this stage, to be fair. I still have plenty of games left in this season and that is my focus.”

Antonio Conte has replaced Nuno Espirito Santo as manager at Spurs since the centre half joined Celtic - but he is only interested in doing well for Postecoglou and helping the Parkhead club enjoy success.

“At the moment I am here at Celtic,” he said. “I’m a Celtic player so my focus is more on impressing the manager here and trying to get results for Celtic. Anything further than that I haven’t really given much thought to.”

Carter-Vickers was unable to prevent Celtic from slumping to a heavy 4-0 defeat when they played Leverkusen at Parkhead back in September – but he believes they have progressed since then and is confident they can get the result they need this evening.

“It was a couple of months ago now,” he said. “We have improved since then as a team, both attacking-wise and defensively. I think we are in a different kind of mood now as a squad and I think we are confident we can go and play our football and try to get a result.

“Obviously overall we have had a tough group with Betis, Leverkusen and Ferencvaros. But at this stage we have six points and we’re still in with a shout of getting through to the knockout rounds in the Europa League so that’s what we’re going to try to do.

“As long as we can still qualify that’s what we want to do. We know if we can get something tomorrow night then it sets up a big game back at home against Betis and we would go into that one confident as well.”

“Leverkusen are a top side. They have great attacking players, quick attacking players who play in a top league in the Bundesliga. So we know it’ll be a test for us but we just have to go there and try to impose our style on the game and see what happens.

“It’s good to know we have that (Conference League football after Christmas) but while we can still qualify for the Europa League that’s what we want to do. We want to aim as high as we can and at the moment we can still do it so that’s what we want.”