Ben Wylie has moved to Ballymena United for the rest of the season, giving the 18-year-old the chance to stay at home and get some competitive football.
With football in Scotland suspended below the top two divisions there is little chance of meaningful action for Celtic’s youngest players with many of them on the Furlough scheme.
Wylie has been restricted to u-18 matches and Glasgow Cup ties since joining Celtic but can now look forward to 26 matches in the Danske Bank Premiership which mirrors the SPFL Premiership with 12 teams playing each other three times before the final five fixtures played among the top and bottom halves.
After 12 matches Ballymena are sitting in fourth place with 20 points from 12 matches.
Speaking to the Ballymena website manager David Jeffery said:
Obviously people are familiar with Ben. Just like Trai Hume, he’s a Ballymena lad who started here and moved to Linfield before progressing to a professional move across to Celtic where he is highly valued by all their coaching staff.
Through our contacts we were made aware that it may be possible for Ben to come home and spend some time here. There were other options available to him and plenty of interest in him but we said how we would look after him and develop his game further, it is well evidenced how we are prepared to give the young players an opportunity here, and he himself is an outstanding talent and to get someone of his ability is fantastic.
He’s a superb young man and we are so pleased to have him. We’re thankful to Chris McCart (Head of Celtic Youth Academy) and to Celtic and his agent Brian Adair for making this happen for Ben to come here and we trust that his time here will be mutually beneficial, that he will enjoy getting back into training and football and hopefully we as his home town can reap the benefits of that this season.
Last week 17-year-old Leo Hjelde joined Ross County, like Wylie he hasn’t yet played a first team match.
Celtic do have a Glasgow Cup Final to play but other than that there are no fixtures for players to get match time and fitness from.
