Ben Summers signed two contracts in one day. Firstly at Celtic, committed till 2026 then later in the day for a season long loan at Dunfermline Athletic.
The attacking midfielder was a regular in the Celtic B side last season, earning two substitute appearances for the first team and making his way into the Scotland u-21 squad.
Moving into the Championship at Dunfermline seems to be the ideal move with the Pars away to Dundee United today as they try to build on last week’s home win over Airdrie where former Celt Ewan Otoo was on the scoresheet.
Celtic’s B side lost at East End Park in last season’s Challenge Cup but it seems that the players and system that they used made a big impact on James McPake.
After signing Summers, the Dunfermline boss told the club website:
He’s a very good player, technically excellent, but he’s also got a bit about him. Just to train every day with them in that environment is great. That doesn’t guarantee you anything when you go to first-team level, whether that’s Celtic or us.
I saw an interview with Ange when he said that nobody gets a debut or anything under him unless it’s earned. He made a couple of appearances off the bench and was on the bench in other games.
Celtic have got a very good B team and they do well, but they’re desperate to get players out and playing proper football and into the first-team. When I had the conversation about Ben last year, Celtic were desperate to hold onto him because they believed he was going to break through – and that proved to be right.
So, the year training with that first-team and being in that environment, as much as he hasn’t played much men’s football, will have developed him. Now, it’s up to him to come out and do well in a first-team environment.
He’s got ambitions to go on and play for Celtic and Celtic have got high hopes for him to be a Celtic player. So, this is the first step in his career away from Celtic now to prove that he’s good enough to play first-team football and then kick on from there.
Those comments from McPake give an insight into the thinking inside Celtic, in an ideal world Summers would be playing for a Celtic B team in The Championship rather than trapped in the Lowland League.
That situation isn’t going to change any time soon which means that the best young prospects have to go out on loan with Ben McPherson joining Queens Park earlier in the week.
Doing OK out on loan isn’t going to be good enough to make in roads towards the Celtic first team, Summers and McPherson really need to put in outstanding performances, becoming key players at their loan clubs for Brendan Rodgers to take notice.
Realistically another loan to a top SPFL club will be required next season to turn Summers into a Celtic first team candidate. Greg Taylor and David Turnbull have shown that starring in the Premiership can open the door to the Celtic first team.
