Chelsea departee tipped to return or move to Liverpool, City – ‘He’s technically that good’

Will Ford

New Brighton signing Billy Gilmour has the ability to play in midfield for a top Premier League club in “four or five years” claims Pat Nevin.

Gilmour secured a £9m move to Brighton this summer after it became clear he would not get the game time he wanted or required at Chelsea this season.


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The Scotland international showed great promise at Chelsea and despite struggling on loan at Norwich last season, Nevin expects the 21-year-old to show his quality after a “brilliant” move to team up with Graham Potter on the south coast.

“Billy Gilmour is at a crucial point in his career and the move to Brighton is a brilliant one,” Nevin told Grosvenor Sport.

“It’s the right move. Chelsea won’t regret selling him because that’s not the way they think as a club – but they may want to buy him back again.

“Four or five years down the line, I won’t be surprised if he’s playing in the Manchester City, Liverpool or Chelsea midfield – he’s that technically good.”

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel revealed that he would have preferred to send Gilmour out on loan again but after discussions with the player allowed him to leave permanently.

“We had high hopes and he played for us in the first half-a-year when I was at Chelsea, played some important matches for us and looked for a new challenge that did not go so well for him with Norwich,” Tuchel explained.

“We expected more, he expected more so it was like, without pointing a finger, but it is difficult also for him and for us to not succeed, to not play at Norwich, to be relegated and then suddenly be a central midfielder for Chelsea and competing for top four and for every title. There’s a huge step in between so we were looking.

“The ideal solution would have been maybe that he goes again on loan as the concurrence is huge for us in central midfield and we felt like he is not the age where he can live again with five or seven or eight matches during a whole season to fulfil his own potential so ideally it would have been another loan. Billy did not want to go on loan, it was a no-go for him so in the end we agreed to a sale.”