While watching the Town’s impressive win away to Swansea on iFollow on Saturday, I couldn’t help but be mesmerised by another calm, composed and controlled performance from Cameron Carter-Vickers – and it got me thinking about our best ever loan signings and where the Spurs defender fits in.
Whenever I think about players who have had temporary spells at Kenilworth Road, the benchmark for quality and impact tends to be Rory Allen and Steve Sutton.
Of course, that isn’t taking into account players who have initially joined on loan and gone on to have sustained careers at the club, such as current stars Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu and Andrew Shinnie, not to mention the relatively recent Jonathan Smith, Cameron McGeehan and Alan Sheehan, among others.
It goes without saying that their impacts have been and were hugely important, but they replaced departed or injured players in teams that were already on their way to achieving things, or which just maintained their form.
The same thing cannot be said for Carter-Vickers, and while time will be the ultimate ruler on this, I firmly believe he is rapidly becoming our best ever loan signing.
I could tell in just the 20 or so minutes that the USA international had at West Brom, back in February, that we had signed someone with some added class, but he has been more than that.
Our defensive improvement has been put down to more than just Carter-Vickers. Some say the return of Glen Rea – who just made his 150th appearance in Swansea – has been vital, while others put it down to the vast difference in the performances of Simon Sluga.
Those arguments are certainly worthy and have plenty of merit to them, but I’m becoming more and more convinced that Carter-Vickers is the catalyst in all of this.
He was excellent before lockdown and in the two matches the Town have played since the restart and he has not just picked up where he left off, but he has gone up to a whole new level, for which we are reaping the benefits.
He not only performs his defensive duties to a very high standard, but is clearly inspiring those around him to follow suit, the proof of which is in the pudding with four clean sheets in the eight matches he has started, compared to one in the 31 he wasn’t involved in.
In no way am I forgetting the six goals in eight games scored by Rory Allen in 1998 to keep us up in what is now League One. Nor am I forgetting the 14 games Steve Sutton played in goal in 1991-92, that almost kept us up to become founder members of the Premier League.
They were huge contributions in their own right, but if Luton stay up this season, I think the role played by Carter-Vickers will top the lot, making him the best loan signing the Town have ever made
