Celtic have reportedly allowed young academy defender, Ronan Ferns to join English Premier League side Brighton this summer. [Daily Record 09:26]
Ferns, who can also play in midfield, progressed through Celtic’s youth system but has not yet signed a professional contract at the club.
The report says that a £250,000 fee has been agreed between the clubs.
If a fee had not been agreed, Celtic would have been entitled to compensation. But it seems that the Hoops may have also secured further financial benefits as the Daily Record says the club have negotiated add-ons as part of the deal.
It also thought that Celtic were keen to hold on to the young utility player. Capped at u16 level for Scotland, Ferns has made eight appearances for his country.
He made his Scotland u16 debut against Denmark in September 2022 and scored his first youth international goal in the 4-1 loss to the Republic of Ireland in November last year. [SFA]
Ferns will join Brighton’s under-23 and development team in the immediate future.
Ferns now joins a long list of highly-rated youngsters that have left Celtic over the last few seasons. The supporters have had to watch as we lost the likes of Ben Doak to Liverpool, Liam Morrison and Barry Hepburn to Bayern Munich and face the prospect of losing Mitchel Frame to Newcastle United.
But what can Celtic do? When teams of those kinds of stature, the leagues they play in and the money that will be on offer come calling, it’s very difficult for the club to compete with that.
All we can continue to do is continue developing the youngsters at the club and show an achievable pathway to the Celtic first team and hope that clubs from the big five leagues don’t come calling.
In other news, Report: Celtic make a formal offer for South Korean winger Yang Hyun-jun
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
