A few months into the campaign, Tottenham Hotspur seemed to have cultivated an air of invincibility after a blistering start under Ange Postecoglou, perching at the Premier League summit after ten matches.
Such a start veiled the residual issues of the 2022/23 campaign that, frankly, had every right to still exist. Tottenham were pretty dire last season and new management and fresh faces could not have been expected to surpass polished machines at the top of the division.
It's remarkable that Postecoglou engineered such a fine start at all, picking up a hat-trick of Manager of the Month awards to start life in the Premier League.
In any case, fighting for Champions League qualification against high-flying Aston Villa and inconsistent Manchester United is probably a fair reflection of where Spurs are at, battling and making gains at the beginning of a new era.
Discordancy ruled supreme down at N17 last season but moves were made to rectify this last summer, with Guglielmo Vicario and Micky van de Ven purchased to restore a struggling defence.
Last season, Hugo Lloris was on the decline, loanee Clement Lenglet flattered to deceive and Eric Dier foundered at the centre of the issue; Tottenham could have done with something else, and might rue the fact that Cameron Carter-Vickers failed to live up to the hype in north London.
Why Spurs sold Cameron Carter-Vickers
Now, Carter-Vickers might be enjoying prominence over in Scotland with Celtic, but he was touted for bigger things once upon a time and Daniel Levy will be most disappointed that he didn't live up to the potential at Tottenham.
His time on Tottenham's books was defined by a nomadic series of years at different outfits, never lasting more than a season and invariably in the Championship.
Sheffield United
2017/18
18
Ipswich Town
2017/18
17
Swansea City
2018/19
33
Stoke City
2019/20
15
Luton Town
2019/20
16
AFC Bournemouth
2020/21
26
Celtic
2021/22
44
He never featured in the Premier League, with four of his five senior appearances for the Lilywhites arriving in the domestic cup competitions during the 2016/17 campaign.
Hoops manager at the time, Postecoglou – would you look at that – hailed it a "major acquisition" for the club and gushed over the defender who had been integral in silver-laden triumphs while on loan.
"He was vital to our success during the season, such a hard-working player of real quality and he was an absolute model of consistency."
Spurs had recruited Cristian Romero and would land Lenglet for the campaign, with Davinson Sanchez and Dier also in the squad – his sale made sense, having ebbed and flowed from form and performance over his years on loan – the £6m outlay to bring him to Celtic Park enticed Spurs to part ways moreover.
Cameron Carter-Vickers' Celtic career
The 16-cap USMNT international has now chalked up 106 appearances for Celtic and has won successive titles in the Premiership and League Cup, also winning the Scottish Cup last term.
Described as a "warrior" and a "winner" by journalist John McGinley, the Southend-born centre-half is undoubtedly one of the finest backliners in Scotland, with his efforts leading Postecoglou to target the player at Spurs at the start of the campaign, albeit not acting on said interest and heading in a different (Dutch) direction.
This season, as per Sofascore, the 26-year-old has featured 18 times in the Scottish Premiership and has completed 92% of his passes, averaging 0.4 key passes, 5.4 ball recoveries and 2.8 clearances per game, also winning an impressive 68% of his contested duels – an absolute monster in the air.
While the defending champions have regressed this season, leading historic rivals Rangers by one point after 30 games (having played a game extra), Carter-Vickers has maintained a high level of performance.
This all sounds rather impressive, but Mauricio Pochettino, who oversaw much of Carter-Vickers' development in the early phase of his Tottenham career, once remarked that Carter-Vickers, having caught the eye as a teenager, would become "one of the best centre-backs in England in the future."
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This hasn't happened, with his very sale after never gracing the Premier League pitch underpinning the disappointment in his ultimate failure to reach the lofty heights once envisaged, and expected.
Cameron Carter-Vickers' market value in 2024
If Carter-Vickers does not try his hand – and foot – in a top division such as the Premier League, he will never be able to bloom into the kind of star that his one-time gaffer once projected him to be.
To reflect this: according to Football Transfers' player valuation model, the 6 foot 1 star is marked with a £13m expected market price right now, and that's after enjoying a £6m skyrocket in value since the beginning of the season.
But £13m places him below the likes of Oliver Skipp within Tottenham's squad, with the 23-year-old centre-midfielder touted at £16m by the site.
Skipp is an industrious player and has been coveted as the outfit's "future captain" by sports broadcaster Abbi Grace Summers in the past, but he's only started four top-flight fixtures this season and doesn't look likely to overtake the likes of Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma to cement a first-choice spot in Postecoglou's team.
Look, the quality is there and Carter-Vickers deserves praise for forging a successful career for himself in Scotland, with Jan Vertonghen once hailing his young positional peer's budding qualities during his younger years.
"He's still young but he's an absolute beast. He's a real defender. He's strong one-on-one, in the air, he's not afraid and he can play from the back. That's the style the gaffer wants to see from him."
Still, Carter-Vickers might have the trappings of an elite defender but he will be 27 years old by the end of the year. He's yet to try his hand in a 'top five European league' and will never be able to prove himself one of the best until he does so.
Who knows? Postecoglou's at the helm and he's clearly an admirer of Carter-Vickers' talents, but it's hard to imagine that he would reach a level close to that of Spurs' star defensive axis right now, and thus will have an onerous task in living up to the one-time effusions of his Pochettino and the like.