Billy Gilmour set to be a Premier League regular next season…but not at Chelsea

BY PAUL LAGAN
paul@slpmedia.co.uk

Billy Gilmour will play regular football in the Premier League this season, it just won’t be for Chelsea.

The Scotland international, who started for his country against England in the Euros last month, is heading out on loan as part of his development.

It’s a blow for head coach Thomas Tuchel, who wanted the 21-year-old play-making midfielder to stay at Stamford Bridge this season.

He blocked a January move for Gilmour to go out on loan, as he wanted to keep the player as Chelsea arrowed towards a fourth place finish in the Premier League and a Champions League final.

But he has now been over-ruled by the club’s hierarchy, backed by the development bosses, who decided that Gilmour’s future lay away from SW6 for a season at least.

Newly-promoted Norwich City are viewed as the perfect ball-playing side to perfect Gilmour’s talents.

Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and Toni Rudiger can get off on holiday now and have a couple of weeks relaxing in the sun somewhere as they were part of the Germany side that crashed out of the Euros on Tuesday.

While England’s Reece James and Mason Mount watched the game from the side of the pitch, it was left to Champions League goalscorer Havertz to express his disappointment at exiting the championship at the round of 16 at Wembley.

He said: “All the offensive players had good chances so it’s not only about Thomas Muller [who missed a golden chance to equalise when England were 1-0 up] , it’s about the whole team.

“We are very disappointed not to give him [outgoing manager Joachim Low] the best ending but he’s a great manager and a great person for all of us.

“England have a good squad with good players but we have them too, so of course we are very disappointed to lose the game.

“It’s hard for us to take but we have to keep on going.”

Any major tournament throws up the player that previously no-one had heard too much about – and they suddenly become the player every club is after.

But there is some traction in the notion that Tuchel is looking to add depth to his defensive line-up. With James a possible casualty.

Manchester City are looking at James, 21, to bolster their retention of the Premier League title and succession plan for Kyle Walker eventually moving on. Chelsea are tracking two right-backs – Roma’s marauding Leonardo Spinazzola and Inter Milan’s Achraf Hakimi.

While the later is keen on a megabucks move to France and Paris St-Germain, Chelsea have asked to be kept informed should that deal fall apart.

The Blues are keen to raise revenue to balance a world-record bid for Borussia Dortmund’s striker Erling Haaland. James would be in the £50-60m category should they opt to sell their academy product.

Chelsea Women have given academy graduate Charlotte Wardlaw, 18, her first professional contract.

The defender, who joined the club as a 15-year-old, has signed a two-year deal.

She said: “It’s amazing.

“Sometimes I feel like I need to take a step back and truly look at what I’ve achieved because when you’re in it, you can sometimes forget how far you’ve come.

“I’m very grateful to be offered this and I’m very excited to finally be officially part of the team.”

Chelsea’s view is that she is not ready to be a consistent first-team player and will be loaned out straight away.