Speaking exclusively to the Celtic website, he said: “I think the last few years for me, I’ve not really known what my club was going to be, so I have been working in pre-season on my own and without that team focus.

“This season, knowing I will be here and being here from the first day of pre-season will be good.

“I’ve been going out on loan for the past five or six seasons, so it’s time for me to stay at a club and settle down.

“I definitely felt as the season went on that I wanted to stay more and more.

'I would probably say by January time I knew that I wanted to stay for good and be part of the club.'

“Last season was huge for me and my development as it’s probably the most I’ve achieved in a season and now it’s about going on and achieving more with the club.”

Pre-season is the perfect place to try and find improvements to ensure that as a group and individually the team gets stronger from the previous campaign.

With the manager putting the group through intense double sessions, and with three matches on the trip to Austria and the Czech Republic, Carter-Vickers and the rest are being worked to the max.

Talking about training, he said: “It’s been good, we’ve been working hard straight away so I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip.

'It’s more about getting back into a rhythm when you’ve not played football in a while, it can take a bit of time to get back into that.'

“Also it’s about trying to get fit as quickly as possible, but for me personally I know once I play a couple of games my fitness levels will be back.

“So the main thing is getting back into a rhythm where things become instinctual.

“When you have time off you probably lose more than a few per cent, but it doesn’t take much time to get that back.”

Carter-Vickers: I knew I wanted to stay at Celtic and now I need to get to work in pre-season