Jock Stein had the legendary figure of Billy McNeill as well as the extra insurance of John Clark during his managerial days at Celtic.

The European Cup-winning captain himself had the likes of Roy Aitken and Paul Elliot. Fast forward to Wim Jansen who had Marc Reiper and Alan Stubbs. Even Martin O'Neill had Bobo Balde and Johan Mjallby. While Neil Lennon and Ronny Deila enjoyed the company of Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer.

Ange Postecoglou has Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt. The link? Domineering centre-backs at Parkhead.

It was Postecoglou who singled out the American after the Hoops' 1-0 Scottish Cup semi-final over Rangers at Hampden Park which put them on course for a historic eighth domestic treble and fifth clean sweep in the last seven years.

The £6 million fee that Celtic shelled out for the Tottenham defender back in June 2022 is looking like one of the best transfer bargains of the modern era in Scottish football.

Carter-Vickers turned in the kind of performance against Rangers that belied the fact that he had been playing through the pain barrier with a troublesome knee injury for quite some time.

Sir Alex Ferguson had a rant for the ages after Aberdeen won the 1983 Scottish Cup final where he infamously lambasted the Reds 'disgraceful performance' and concluded: "Miller (Willie) and McLeish (Alex) won the cup for Aberdeen."

Jack Charlton famously said that Paul McGrath played against Italy on his own after the Republic of Ireland had shocked Roberto Baggio and company at the World Cup in USA '94.

Carter-Vickers' display ranks up there with the aforementioned. It was genuinely that good.

What was even more impressive was that the defender put himself through the football wringer on the biggest stage of all against Rangers in a match that was to signal the end of his season. The 25-year-old will now receive knee surgery to correct the problem to be ready for the challenges next season throws up.

Carter-Vickers repelled everything that Rangers could throw at him inside the national stadium. He stood up to every aerial dual and contested every ball on the deck. Even when the Scottish Cup holders thought they had forced a close-range equaliser and Alfredo Morelos went in studs up and succeeded only in connecting with Carter-Vickers leg, the centre-back somehow miraculously managed to hack the ball away from his own goal-line to keep his side's lead intact.

As he lay prostrate on the ground in agony the second phase of play saw Borna Barisic float one into the Celtic penalty box. Who should drag himself up from inside his own six-yard box to header it away? Carter-Vickers.

The defender clearly decided, alongside Starfelt, that he was simply not going to be on the losing side against Rangers. He defended like his life depended on it, like this was the last game he would ever play.

He knew it would be the end of his season. He didn't care. He sacrificed himself at the Hampden altar so that his teammates could go on to pursue sporting glory when they return to Mount Florida on June 3.

READ MORE: Celtic’s colossal duo & pulverising press that blunted Rangers

Certain defenders can define an era. The union between Carter-Vickers and Celtic has been a beautiful one. It has also been era-defining. Postecoglou was shrewd all right when he plucked the defender from White Hart Lane. A permanent deal at Parkhead was in the offing all along after the seventh loan spell of his career. The Aussie knew he had unearthed a hidden gem.

In the nearly two years that Carter-Vickers has played in Scotland, he has only ever tasted defeat domestically once when paired together with Starfelt. Ironically that came at the same stage of the Scottish Cup last season, where he excelled greatly on Sunday and turned in a Player of the Match display.

He has been christened "Carter-Vickers...eight or nine.." by yours truly and many others, as his performance levels rarely dip below that gold standard when it comes to dishing out man-by-man ratings.

It was small wonder that Postecoglou waxed lyrical about him in the Hampden auditorium as he basked in the afterglow of yet another victory against Rangers.

Celtic Way:

"He (Carter-Vickers) hasn't put a foot wrong since we signed him," he said. "He has been outstanding and him and Carl as a partnership have not lost domestically. They are an outstanding pair, and they really work hard together and Cameron again keeps growing as a player and a leader within the group."

Celtic will slug it out with Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden next month as they attempt to create a new world record with an eighth domestic treble. The only shadow cast over Celtic's victory was the fact that Carter-Vickers will not be able to take part in the end-of-season showpiece.

The comparisons with Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, who was once rated the best defender in the world, are inevitable and have already started. The Dutchman has previously admitted he would not be the defender he is today without the career pitstop in Scotland along the way.

Celtic have always been known as the artisans in football and the club has a philosophy of attacking football built into its DNA. Defenders have never really been in vogue at Parkhead. Well, certainly not as much as, say, a goal-scoring talisman.

If the Hoops were a record label they would be Tamla Motown and it is fair to say that Carter-Vickers has struck all the right chords since his arrival in Glasgow.

Sunday's selfless performance against Rangers at Hampden was another in a long series that should see him nailed on for the Scottish Player of the Year award.

Every Celtic generation spawns a team and certain individuals within that team grab all the glory. It is usually the domain of strikers and creators. You would be forgiven for thinking that the Postecoglou era will be best remembered for the exploits of Kyogo Furuhashi and Jota. It will. But so too will the deeds of Carter-Vickers live long in the memory.

Seldom do defenders take centre stage. There are a few notable exceptions namechecked at the top of this piece. Carter-Vickers is now one of them. If defending is an art then he has perfected that domestically in Scotland.

Everybody watching him for Celtic at Hampden in the most recent fixture will have flicked through the roller decks in their minds and picked their own favourite centre-back as to who the American reminded them of most.

Was it McNeill or Clark? Was it Aitken or Elliott? Was it Rieper or Stubbs? Or how about Balde or Mjallby? Then surely it must have been Van Dijk or Denayer?

The point is that it doesn't really matter. These players are etched into the pantheon of excellent central defenders who have graced the football club down the years.

Postecoglou nailed it completely when he said: "He (Carter-Vickers) put in a performance that befits his standing at our football club."

READ MORE: Celtic are lording it over Rangers as they look to make history

That's why the very mention of the names above always elicits a smile from the Celtic support. Those names alone befit the standing of the football club.

You can now add Carter-Vickers' name to that talented list. His legacy will sit proudly alongside his defensive peers. He is up there with some of the best defenders in the club's history.

In just two short years, he has gone from being a former Tottenham loan player to a Celtic colossus.