Gilmour has impressed each time he has featured for Chelsea (Getty Images)
According to a report by Eastern Daily Press (h/t Football.london), Norwich City are interested in a loan transfer for Chelsea midfielder, Billy Gilmour. The Canaries have won promotion to the Premier League and are now on the lookout for players that can help them sustain life amongst England’s big boys.
The young Scotsman broke through in the Chelsea senior team during the 2019/20 Premier League season. But a knee injury last year meant that he missed a chunk of this season’s start and had to fight for his way back into the Chelsea XI. But with Thomas Tuchel now building a team for a title charge, we see why Chelsea can afford to let him leave on a loan spell.
Currently, the Blues have a solid squad at their disposal. Tuchel likes to play a formation with three centre-backs, two wide wing-backs, and two central midfielders, who are then supplemented by three attack-minded players. Given his formation’s need for two central midfielders, the Blues are not short of options.
We will focus here on central and defensive midfield, the position where Gilmour plies his trade. Superstar midfielder N’Golo Kante and Italian deep-lying playmaker Jorginho are two players that featured regularly in that role. Both of them impressed enough to retain their status as regular starters and would look to do so next season as well.
Apart from them, former Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic offers an excellent option for squad rotation as well as competition to other players in that position. The Blues have also seen a number of players return from loan spells in that area – Conor Gallagher, Ross Barkley, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are all expected to be back at Stamford Bridge.
Apart from that, highly-rated youngster Mason Mount can also slot in as a central midfielder, as he has done this season on a handful of occasions. This shows that the club is not really lacking in that area, at least on paper. A youngster like Billy Gilmour would find it very hard to find regular starts.
For a player like Gilmour, who just turned 20 earlier this month, a loan spell to a Premier League side would be very beneficial – especially for a team like Norwich, where he stands to get more playing time than at Chelsea right now. Gilmour played a paltry 259 minutes of league football this season, which is far too less.
At the Canaries, he can face the same opposition that Chelsea would and have a chance to develop into a more refined player. You cannot buy experience for a player. Ultimately, it comes with them getting minutes on the green grass. Gilmour, who was a crucial part of Scotland’s Euros 2020 campaign, would also want more playing time.
That is not to say that he would want a move away from Stamford Bridge. However, for young professionals who have already started earning international call-ups, regular playing time at club level becomes important. Tuchel has already mentioned the problems Gilmour will have in getting regular playing time at Chelsea when he spoke in March (Goal via Football.london)
“He has three big problems – N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho are three big problems. They are never injured and they perform on a level in central midfield that is not easy to compete with. This is the only thing… I know it is hard for him and we talk now several times because sometimes he does not make it to the 18 because we play with two central midfielders and I already have one of the three guys I mentioned on the bench.”
