Rangers talent Billy Gilmour is being lined up for a move to Chelsea.
Malky Mackay
Scottish FA Performance Director Malky Mackay has told The Scottish Sun that he thinks Rangers’ Billy Gilmour should stay at Ibrox rather than join Chelsea.
Gilmour, 15, has emerged as the top young talent from the Rangers academy this season, and he has trained with the Gers first team ahead of a possible first-team debut.
However, Gilmour’s rise to prominence in Glasgow has sparked interest in his signature, and a deal for him to leave Ibrox before the end of the season looks to be on the cards.
Goal reported earlier this week that Chelse have struck a £500,000 deal to sign the teenage midfielder, after he visited the club’s Cobham Training Ground.
The deal may not be done just yet, but Gilmour looks to be heading to England, where he will be hoping to star with Chelsea – and enjoy better fortunes than Islam Feruz, who left Celtic for Chelsea as a teenager before his career stagnated at Stamford Bridge.
Ahead of Gilmour’s likely move to West London, Scottish FA Performance Director Malky Mackay – charged with improving Scottish football and the development of players – has offered his view on the situation.
Speaking to The Scottish Sun, Mackay firstly praised Gilmour’s displays for Scotland Under-16’s, before suggesting that he will be tucked away in Chelsea’s academy with a host of other youngsters, well away from the first team.
General view before the match
Mackay added that he has spoken to Gilmour and his father about the teen’s future, claiming that he would be better off staying and developing at Rangers, using Ashley Young’s success at Watford as the success story of staying put in a youth academy rather than moving on to a bigger club.
“Billy was terrific recently, as a few of them where,” said Mackay. “Boys like Chris Hamilton at Hearts, Dave McKay at Celtic and Dapo Mebude all did well. There’s a real togetherness amongst them and Gilmour ran all over that park for his team-mates, which helped drive them right to the very end. It’s all about the pathway from here. The quicker you can test yourself against men, the better. To be tucked into an academy with 20 other international-class teenagers, what chance are you going to get?”
“Billy can have his pick in the summer and I’ve had a conversation with him and his dad. I was asked to give my experience as a player and a coach in the past. I won’t tell any club’s players what to do. It was just about my own experiences. I told them about Ashley Young, who could have left Watford at a young age but he opted to stay and play games.”
“Just three years later, Aston Villa came back to buy him for £9 million before he moved to Manchester United. That was as opposed to him going into a youth-team set-up with 25 other reserves, another 25 out on loan and 25 first-team players beyond that. You’d have to go through that just to get a foot on the ladder,” he added.
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