Jones: Spurs defender will have to earn his place in the Town team

New signing has the Championship experience Luton boss wanted
New Hatters defender Cameron Carter-VickersNew Hatters defender Cameron Carter-Vickers
New Hatters defender Cameron Carter-Vickers

Town chief Graeme Jones has told new addition Cameron Carter-Vickers that he will have to earn his place in the Hatters team after joining on loan from Premier League side Spurs this afternoon.

The 22-year-old has plenty of previous Championship experience for Sheffield United, Ipswich Town and Swansea City, while made 15 appearances for Stoke City in the first half of the current campaign.

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On whether he could go straight in to face West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, Jones said: “He’ll have to earn that because Sonny (Bradley) and Matty (Pearson) and Donervon (Daniels) have been really good.

“It’s easy during a negative period to just think everything’s wrong and you don’t measure improvement, but Sonny and Matty have improved as the season has gone on.

“I’ve got a great deal of loyalty towards people that face adversity, turn up every day, keep their standards high, and have got the character to say, ‘I'm ready to be picked gaffer.’

“Because only at that point do you get any adaptation and only that point do you improve, and that’s what those two lads have done.

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“So we’ve brought Cameron in to help us, to help Sony, Matty and Donveron.

“Cameron’s got the Championship experience I was looking for, at a good age, he’s got international pedigree.

“I know him because at West Brom, we played against Graham Potter’s Swansea team last year, I know what he's capable of.

“The guy’s played 76 games in the Championship, he's had four different loan experiences and this is his fourth.

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“So we’re not getting a guy who's gone out on his first loan, he knows what the league is about, so that's really pleasing.”

The USA international can fill any berth across the back four, although Jones knows his preferred role, continuing: “First and foremost, Cameron’s a centre half, one of the two, one of the three.

“He’s very adaptable that way, he's really strong, a really aggressive one v one defender, got real good resilience, but if he needed to do a job at full back he wouldn’t let you down, so that's a really good option.”

Whatever part Carter-Vickers plays during the run-in, Jones was just happy to get his man at the second time of asking, admitting he tried to sign the defender in the summer.

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He added: "Yes, we got priced out of the market by Stoke which happens.

"But I spoke to Cameron's agent and there was definitely a connection there.

"I'm just delighted now that we've managed to get it done because he'll help us a lot."