Dunfermline Athletic are delighted to announce the signing of Ewan Otoo on a permanent three year deal. A member of the League One title winning team last season, Ewan played in eleven matches while on loan from Celtic from February 2023.
The 20 year old defender, who can play on the left side or in central defence, impressed as he captained Celtic B against Dunfermline in the SPFL Trust Trophy back in November 2022. Following a serious hamstring injury to Rhys Breen, Ewan formed a central defensive partnership with Kyle Benedictus and played every minute of the Pars final eight League One matches.
James McPake was delighted to welcome Ewan back to the KDM Group East End Park and said that he is a player whose progress he has been watching him since he was fourteen or fifteen playing for Celtic. When Sam Fisher was recalled by Dundee, Ewan had already been identified to bolster the squad. The manager explained:-
“When Rhys Breen got injured we got a real performance from Ewan. He would have come in and had an impact anyway but we saw in the later stages of the season just how good he could be.
“Similar to Kane Ritchie-Hosler, he just had to bide his time and what I liked about that was he never spat the dummy out, he worked really hard. He came from a big club in the last year of his contract but obviously maybe with options of the next year but he just wanted to work hard every day and wait for his turn to get in the team.”
The day after joining Ewan made his Dunfermline debut in the fantastic 4-3 win at Airdrie on 11th February and James outlined the 20 year old’s strengths
“He drives great with the ball, he is very composed but at that age we should be getting the best out of him as a defender. We will push him, he is just desperate to learn, desperate to get better all the time and work every day. We can’t have enough of them at the club.
“He is another who is rapid quick, very athletic and very strong but it is what he can do with the ball as well. Half the time he is dribbling in the opposition’s box after a big long run! We will be working on polishing up his defensive side. I believe you can see the difference after working on Rhys Breen – and it is not just us but with having Benedictus there, with Comrie being there too. The other thing about Ewan is that he can play left back, he can play centre mid, left centre back in a two, left centre back in a three. He could probably play left wing, he is that good!”
Assistant manager Dave Mackay added:-
“We are delighted that we have Ewan tied up. I’m sure that he will have had a few different offers as well but he seemed to really enjoy his time with us last season. It took him a little bit of time to get into the team because the team was playing well but once he did get into the team towards the end of the season, I just felt that he was getting better and better.
“He is at a brilliant age, he has had a great grounding at Celtic and he is very highly regarded there. Obviously it is very difficult to break into their first team but I’m sure he doesn’t see it as a step back coming to ourselves. It is just a different stage of his career where hopefully he will come, do extremely well at Dunfermline and keep progressing, improving all the time and try and get back to the levels that he has been at with a club like Celtic.
“We are excited to work with him because I think that we have only seen a small glimpse of what he is capable of. We are delighted that he has agreed to join the club permanently and as a coaching staff we are really excited to work with him again.”
