When Ben Summers scored his first goal for Celtic against Sunderland in 2012 his mum apparently jumped ten feet in the air. Given her son has signed his first professional contract at Celtic eight years later Mum may be swinging from the light fittings today.
Sixteen year old Ben already has a little fame under his belt having played a young Tommy Burns in the documentary about the Celtic legend’s life and as an attacking midfielder and technical player you’d assume Burns himself would approve of Celtic’s decision to sign young Ben up.
As Billy McNeill said there is a fairytale aspect to Celtic and he of course was right. Wouldn’t it be a continuation of that romanticism to see another red headed attacker, described in that game against Sunderland as a ‘livewire’, to break into the Celtic first team and be one of those who make the grade?
Of course, despite already being at Celtic for eight years the hard works begins now for Ben Summers. Yet he’ll already know the sacrifices that have to be made to make the grade at Celtic, simply by reaching the stage where a professional contract has been signed. He now only has to look at Callum McGregor, James Forrest and most recently Mikey Johnstone to see that with the dedication to match the talent a career as a player for Celtic can be achieved.
Youngsters at Celtic will be given their opportunity and if you are good enough Neil Lennon has shown he’ll have no concerns about whether you are old enough.
From a supporters perspective there is of course nothing better than seeing one of our own come through and make a telling impact.
After losing the likes of Liam Morrison to Bayern Munich and hearing young Celtic winger Barry Hepburn was ‘confidently predicted’ to sign on in Bavaria too, we then had Manchester City attempting to lure young midfielder Josh Adam. It is of course a concern as much as a compliment that top European sides recognise Celtic can produce top footballers, but you to tend to worry that retention of these players could become an issue.
It is a shot in the arm therefore to see the trend reversed and Ben Summers decide that Celtic is the place to develop his skills.
It’s also important to see a pathway to the first team for these young Bhoys and with Karamoko Dembele already having seen first team action in the Scottish Premiership and young Scott Robertson perform admirably alongside Dembele in the Europa League clash against Cluj last season, then there is clearly success amongst his peers for Ben Summers to look up to and I’m sure no little encouragement will be offered from those players too.
For Ben and his family this will be the proudest of moments seeing the youngster sign on at Celtic. If Mum jumped ten feet high when her son scored a goal against Sunderland at eight years of age, imagine the orbit she’ll inhabit when he takes the field at Celtic Park for the first time.
And many happy returns to Ben too. Birthdays don’t come much happier than this one. Sweet sixteen indeed.
Niall J
