Celtic struck gold on “absolutely pivotal” star whose value has risen 560%

Celtic‘s imperious kind continued on Saturday, smashing Hibernian 3-0 in Glasgow, with Arne Engels breaking the impasse inside six minutes, whereas Kyogo Furuhashi was additionally on the right track afterward with this balletic first-touch after which an impudent dink over goalkeeper Jordan Smith.

This leaves the Hoops 9 factors clear on the prime of the Scottish Premiership, having collected 43 factors out of a doable 45, additionally overwhelming favourites to beat Rangers in Sunday’s League Cup Last at Hampden.

Brendan Rodgers‘ aspect have additionally, for essentially the most half, carried out nicely within the Champions League, amassing 9 factors from six fixtures and dropping solely as soon as.

Thus, with a pivotal Champions League tie adopted by an Previous Agency cup remaining, weeks don’t come a lot greater than this for the Celts.

Centre-back: so typically Celtic’s downside place

Since reaching the 2003 UEFA Cup Last, Celtic have largely dissatisfied in Europe, it doesn’t matter what competitors they’ve featured in.

It is now over 20 years because the Hoops most just lately gained a knockout part tie on the continent, defeating Barcelona within the UEFA Cup fourth spherical all the best way again in March 2004, dumped out from all 9 subsequently.

So dominant domestically, Celtic’s centre-backs had been routinely getting uncovered and came upon at European stage, with names corresponding to Jozo Šimunović, Cha Du-Ri and Shane Duffy sufficient to ship a shudder down the backbone of any supporter.

There have, nevertheless, been a couple of good centre-backs too, none extra so than Virgil van Dijk.

We wrote about van Dijk’s Celtic profession final week, underlining how effortlessly excellent he was, leaving a somewhat massive void for all who observe to fill.

Nicely, since his arrival in Glasgow, Cameron Carter-Vickers has been the Celts’ undisputed stalwart on the again, maybe not fairly pretty much as good as van Dijk, however he is actually proper up there when it comes to modern-day nice defenders.

Since transferring from Tottenham, initially on loan, before joining permanently for £6m, america worldwide has been a Celtic stalwart, a elementary determine of their success, initially beneath Ange Postecoglou and now with Brendan Rodgers again on the helm.

Nevertheless, Carter-Vickers is considerably injury-prone, lacking 45 matches throughout all competitions, which equates to 25.7% of fixtures, since his debut, most notably requiring knee surgical procedure in April 2023, soldiering by way of the ache earlier than going beneath the knife the morning after victory over Rangers within the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

In consequence, his varied central defensive colleagues have needed to come to the fore, both alongside or deputising for the Southend-on-Sea-born American worldwide, with one specifically doing simply that.

Liam Scales: proving doubters unsuitable

When Liam Scales arrived at Celtic in August 2021 from Shamrock Rovers for a fee of £500k, this caused little fanfare.

After making simply 13 appearances throughout his first season, all coming as a left-back it is price noting, Scales spent the 2022/23 marketing campaign on mortgage at Aberdeen.

Within the North East, Scales impressed, taking part in in 39 of the 42 fixtures for which he was eligible, serving to the Dons to a third-place end, endearing himself to the Celtic help by scoring a long-range, if considerably wind-assisted, strike in opposition to Ranges throughout a 2-0 victory at Pittodrie.

The next season, now again in Glasgow, whereas Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki each struggling for health, Scales established himself as Carters-Vickers’ undisputed first-choice associate on the again.

He began all six Champions League group stage video games final time period, in addition to the primary three league part fixtures this 12 months, incomes worldwide recognition for the primary time in October 2023, earlier than beginning every of Republic of Eire’s final 4 UEFA Nations League fixtures this autumn.

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As famous by Matthew Lindsay of The Herald, Brendan Rodgers described the Irish defender as “completely pivotal”, following his workforce’s 5-1 demolition of Slovan Bratislava in September, claiming he doesn’t get the credit score he deserves.

Transfermarkt now believes Scales’ switch worth is at an all-time excessive, approximating that the Irishman is price, €4m, round £3.3m, near seven occasions what the Bhoys paid for his providers three and a half years in the past.

So how do Scales and Carter-Vickers examine?

As outlined above, Scales has performed considerably extra minutes than Carter-Vickers because the begin of final season, with the pair’s per 90 statistics largely comparable, which is a large praise to the Irishman, contemplating how rock-solid his associate has been.

The very fact Scales is left-footed means the duo complement one another nicely and, regardless of the arrival of Auston Trusty, who has been consuming up some minutes, that is clearly Celtic’s finest partnership, with Scales’ inventory solely set to rise.

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