Rangers youngster Billy Gilmour is reportedly close to leaving Ibrox for Chelsea.
Pundit Pat Nevin
Pundit Pat Nevin has told the Daily Mail that he thinks Chelsea would be a great place for Billy Gilmour to develop – but wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing for Rangers in 2017.
Gilmour, 15, has emerged as the top young hope from the Rangers academy, and he has been seen in training with the Gers first team this season ahead of a professional debut.
Unfortunately for Rangers, that debut may never come at Ibrox, as the teenage midfielder looks set to leave Glasgow for the Premier League.
As reported by the Daily Record, Gilmour is closing in on a move to Chelsea, with the Blues prepared to pay up to £500,000 to land the Scot in a big deal for a 15-year-old.
Many have warned Gilmour that he is making a mistake in joining the Premier League champions-elect, as they have been stockpiling young talent in recent years without ever really giving them chances at Stamford Bridge.
The likes of Izzy Brown, Kasey Palmer, Lewis Baker, Andreas Christensen and Tammy Abraham are all out on loan, as is young Scot Islam Feruz – often noted as a cautionary tale for Gilmour.
Feruz left Celtic as a teenager to join Chelsea, but his career has been a series of controversies and loan moves, with the young striker unlikely to ever play for the Blues.
Now, former Chelsea and Scotland ace Pat Nevin has told the Daily Mail that Gilmour is making a great move, as the Blues know how to develop players – and he’s confident that Gilmour won’t become the next Feruz.
General view outside Ibrox
BBC pundit Nevin did though add that, in two years Gilmour will be looking for a loan move, and believes he will want to return to Rangers to develop back at Ibrox.
“There is a lot of dislike for the Chelsea academy system,” said Nevin. “They’ve won all the youth prizes in England for however many seasons in a row, they’ve won the UEFA Youth League, so people think they’re just buying success and then discarding these young players. If they were hoarding up players and these lads weren’t developing, they were just winning trophies for youth coaches? That would be a disgrace. An absolute disgrace. But there are so many coming through. There are dozens of these kids playing in the Premier League, the Championship and other major competitions. So it’s obviously a good place to develop as a footballer. As long as you don’t become fixated on the first team and judge your time there entirely on whether you get picked for a team full of world-class players.”
“I know people cite Islam as an example up here. But they don’t talk about it like that at Chelsea. I saw Islam when he went down there and, as good as he was, when I saw what he was up against, he didn’t stick out as better than the rest. And there was always the concern about whether his head was in the right place. Attitude counts for a lot. The cons for Billy are that it’s going to be unbelievably hard to get into the first team, however good you are. You have to be a world-class player — and there are not that many of them around. But there are so many positives. It’s a tough system just to get into. The standard is incredible. And, if you want what’s best for Scottish football, you want individual young players to develop in the best environment.”
“I wouldn’t rule out seeing Billy playing for the Rangers first team at age 17. And I would love to see that happen. Two or three years from now, Chelsea will tell him he’s going out on loan somewhere — and ask him where he thinks would be best. I would not be surprised if he just said: ‘Rangers’.” he added.
Do you think Gilmour is making a mistake?