Luke Summerfield - Biography

Biography

Summerfield was born in Shrewsbury, when his father Kevin, was a player for Shrewsbury Town. Luke, in fact, led out his dad and the Shrewsbury Town team as mascot when they appeared at Wembley Stadium in the Football League Trophy Final verses Rotherham United.

At the age of 11 his family relocated to Devon and he and was a student at Ivybridge Community College. He signed a professional contract with Plymouth Argyle, before the start of the 2005–06 season. He made two appearances in his first two seasons for Argyle (both as a substitute), once in the league and once in the League Cup. Summerfield made his debut for Argyle, as a substitute, on 8 May 2005, against Leicester. On his first start for Argyle, against Colchester United in the Football League Championship, on 8 August 2006, during the 2006–07 campaign, Summerfield scored with a 25 yard bullet after 29 minutes.

At the early stage of his career, Summerfield was touted for an England U-19 call, and it was widely held that Summerfield was being tracked by a host of Premier League clubs, a notion further enhanced after spending a week on trial with champions Chelsea, along with then teammate Dan Gosling, in March 2007. In November 2006, journalist Tony Rees placed Summerfield in the Football League's '7 Deadly Winners' article, citing him as a "rookie with a fine touch, and a Premiership look", with a price valuation of £1.5m, in a list which included then teammate Luke McCormick, who was valued at £2m. In January 2007, Summerfield was listed as number 5 in The Guardian's ten best prospects to watch out for in 2007, an article researched and compiled by James Dart, Tom Lutz and Paolo Bandini.

Former Plymouth Argyle manager Ian Holloway has commented on Summerfield, "I see Luke doing things far beyond his tender years. The boy has a fine touch, he is typical of the talent that Plymouth will produce for the future." On 20 March 2007, Summerfield signed a loan deal with League One side AFC Bournemouth, until the end of the season. On 25 September 2009, Summerfield moved to League One side Leyton Orient on a one-month loan, which was later extended to three months, before he returned to Plymouth on 19 December.

On 31 July 2011 Summerfield trialled with hometown club Shrewsbury Town and played in a friendly verses Manchester United he, however, was not offered a contract and on 4 August 2011, Summerfield signed a one-year deal with Cheltenham Town.

On 3 July 2012 almost a year after his initial trial, Summerfield rejected the contract offer from Cheltenham Town to sign for Shrewsbury Town, the town where he was born. He scored his first goal for Shrewsbury in a 3-1 FA Cup defeat versus Hereford United at Edgar Street