After making his Celtic first-team debut in the Champions League against Aston Villa, Daniel Cummings has found himself banished to the club’s B-team amid strong links to Premier League side West Ham United.
The 18-year-old attacking midfielder is unlikely to earn much of a chance in Brendan Rodgers’ senior set-up going forward after it was reported that the players had his eyes fixed on sealing a January move to the Hammers.
However, a pre-contract deal failed to materialise, even though West Ham remain very keen to land the youngster in the summer window. Portsmouth also attempted to hijack Cummings potential move before he was named on the subs bench for the European clash at Villa Park. A mainstay for the club’s B-team, Cummings has impressed in both the UEFA Youth League and Lowland league in recent seasons. Cummings continued his red-hot form against league leaders East Kilbride at K-Park on Saturday, netting a hat-trick in a 5-1 victory for the young Celts. With it appearing increasingly likely he will put pen to paper with the London club in the coming months, Cummings is expected to see out the campaign with Stephen McManus’ side.
And opposing boss Michael Kennedy has conceded he will should a large amount of responsibility for EK’s heavy defeat, admitting his decision to take a ‘gung ho’ approach and change shape to 4-2-4 played into Cummings’ hands in South Lanarkshire.
He said: “To be fair, at 1-1 we should have been a least two ahead. They caught us on the break and went 2-1 up, and I went a bit ‘gung ho’ with the shape, so I take a bit of responsibility for that.“The score-line is probably a reflection of the shape; we went to a 4-2-4, so we really had no midfield, to be fair, and I take a bit of responsibility for that. For 60 minutes of the game we should have been in front, we played really well, but it was one of those ones.“Our record against Celtic is usually excellent, but the games are always very tight, and they’re always in the balance all the time, because of the way the two teams play. It was a bit of a sore one in the end, but I’ll take a bit of responsibility for the overall scoreline, rather than the boys.”
Cami Elliott had fired East Kilbride into an early lead before Cummings struck after 16 minutes. The visitors took the lead with 18 minutes remaining, promoting Kennedy’s radical formation change. Celtic then scored three times in the space of eight minutes with Cummings notching twice, adding to strikes from Lewis Dobbie and Tom Pickford.
