Former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson thinks Billy Gilmour was the best player on the park in the 0-0 draw with England at Wembley – and Fergie thinks the Chelsea wonderkid must start Tuesday’s Euro 2020 crunch with Croatia at Hampden.
The 20-year-old was handed his first start for Scotland and put in the sort of performance you’d expect from someone with 50 caps to their name and hundreds of appearances at club level.
After going head-to-head with club-mate Mason Mount, Gilmour showed a fantastic reading of the game, excellent technical ability and an outstanding work rate and Ferguson is convinced he should be one of the first names on Clarke’s team-sheet moving forward.
“I should have been celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary. Instead, I was glued to the couch,” Ferguson told the Daily Record.
“Okay, I spent the vast majority of the game on my feet kicking every ball, willing on the boys in navy blue and I am as proud as punch of every one of them.
“We might not have won. But for guts, guile and get-right-in-about-them graft this was worthy of so much more than three points.
“Then there was Billy Gilmour. What can I say about him?
“The best way to sum his performance up is that the 20-year-old can’t come out the side now. He is just a classy, classy operator. I love watching him and he is on a different level. He was the best player on the park on his debut.
“The stage was set for him and Billy showed everybody what he is all about.I hear people say he is going to be a top player. Well he is already a top player.”
Scotland need to build a team around Billy Gilmour
With the Hampden clash against Croatia a must-win, Clarke needs to start Gilmour – and then build his team around him for the future.
The likes of John McGinn, Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson have been talismen for Scotland under Clarke but Gilmour is already every bit as good a player as any of the three of them.
There’s no limit on how far he can go in his career and rather than waiting until he’s fully established in the Chelsea side, Scotland should be all-in on Gilmour.
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