Trust a loving parent to analyse their high-achieving son and still think him capable of more. When Billy Gilmour came off the pitch after playing an hour of Brighton & Hove Albion’s game against West Ham United a couple of weeks ago his father was quickly on the scene with some constructive criticism. “How many times,” said Billy Snr, in exasperated reference to his boy passing up some chances to take a pop at goal. “Do you want to just take a chance and shoot!”
The whole family is ready, waiting for a goal. Gilmour has never scored for Chelsea, Norwich City, Brighton or Scotland. Not one in 90 appearances including Scotland’s Euro 2024 qualifier in Cyprus on Friday night. “I’m still waiting for it. It’s coming,” said the 22-year-old, smiling because not managing a goal is hardly the end of the world when life is good again under Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton. “It used to be my trademark when I was growing up. Edge of the box, hitting it first time, and it would go in.” Last weekend his dad’s words were still running through his mind when the ball bounced towards him against Newcastle United and he unloaded a vicious shot. Nick Pope saved but Evan Ferguson buried the rebound in an emphatic Brighton win.
Gilmour can smile about his dad’s frustration and his own failure, so far, to find the net. It will come because nothing about this gifted little midfielder feels incomplete. On Tuesday night he will again face the team who were the opposition when he really emerged as a Scotland player. The England game at Wembley in Euro 2020 was only the third cap of his career and his first start at international level. Gilmour, just 5ft 6in, was wonderfully composed and confident across the centre of the pitch, taking the ball under pressure, shielding it, scanning, moving it effectively and keeping Scotland ticking over. He was a class act in a surprise goalless draw.
“I didn’t think I’d play. To be on the pitch against England and what happened that night was surreal. I was a bit nervous going into the game. I hadn’t expected to be in right from the start. So when I got the heads up I was starting I was trying my best to calm the nerves. But when I got on the pitch it was more excitement. When you start playing the first couple of nice passes it settles you right down.”
Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips and Mason Mount — Gilmour’s good pal and Chelsea team-mate at the time — were the England midfield that night but on ITV Graeme Souness said the Scot had outplayed them. He has had higher praise than that. After an FA Cup tie against Liverpool in 2020 Roy Keane purred over him. “I literally got out of my seat, which I very rarely do, and I thought, ‘who is this kid’. Just his general play. I thought it was like a world class player.” In 2021 Jürgen Klopp said Gilmour was “probably one of the biggest Scottish talents for the last 50 years”.
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Life is never straightforward. No sooner had he announced himself at Scotland level than he had to hide away. Two days after all the post-match hugs and backslapping at Wembley, Gilmour tested positive for Covid-19 and had to isolate, his tournament over almost as soon as it began. A lengthy chat with Mount and Ben Chilwell in the Wembley tunnel meant they were deemed close contacts and missed England’s final group game too.
Gilmour started Scotland’s next seven competitive games under Steve Clarke but an ill-advised loan to Norwich City in 2021-22 was detrimental. He looked out of place in a team which was regularly overrun and eventually relegated. “It was a difficult season. I went there thinking I could get on the ball and play. I went and it was a tough season, but I learnt a lot more off the ball which is something I had to improve on in my game.”
Gilmour has endured a tough two years since starring for Scotland against England and his good friend Mount in June 2021
MIKE EGERTON/PA
Setbacks began to accumulate. Frank Lampard had championed him at Chelsea but Thomas Tuchel took over and there were fewer opportunities. Graham Potter spent £9 million to sign him for Brighton only to leave a week later to take over at Chelsea. That was seen as a Sliding Doors moment for Gilmour — had he not moved, surely Potter would have played him at Chelsea — and in the first 30 league games last season he started only twice at Brighton and lost his place as a guaranteed fixture for Clarke and Scotland. There was the troubling distraction of a stalking case along with Mount and Chilwell. Last September and October a young woman who had had a brief relationship with Mount, Orla Sloan, sent numerous threatening messages to Gilmour and the two other players on social media and also targeted some of his friends and family. In a victim statement Gilmour said he had required sleeping tablets and the episode had a negative effect on his performance and professional life. In July Sloan was given a suspended prison sentence and a five-year restraining order.
Through all of that De Zerbi had continued to value Gilmour even if he rarely picked him. In the final games of last season that changed and Gilmour started five of their last eight in the Premier League. He was outstanding in a 6-0 rout of Wolves in April and De Zerbi admitted to “mistakes” by not playing him more often. When Brighton sold Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister for deals worth a potential £170 million it cleared the traffic blocking Gilmour.
“I felt no pressure coming in,” he said about the responsibility of taking over from Brighton’s midfield stars. “I was there for last season, I worked under both Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo and I’m buzzing for them that they got two top moves. They will go on to do very well. But now it’s for us at Brighton to step up and be counted and I have to make sure I can give it my all. Fair play to Brighton, their model works.”
Had Ferguson not scored a hat-trick last weekend, one of them from a Gilmour pass, there was a consensus that the Scot may have been the man of the match against Newcastle. The wee maestro is walking tall again.
