The way Billy Gilmour tells the story it was a rite of passage, rather like a little schoolboy being shaken down for his lunch money by the big, bad bully.
The Chelsea midfielder still looks like that schoolboy and, for the other role in the scene, please read the Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire, who stands at 6ft 4in and is most surely not a guy to mess with.
It was Gilmour’s third appearance for Chelsea in the Carabao Cup tie against United at Stamford Bridge last October, which ended in a 2-1 defeat, and the 18-year-old Scot, who is 5ft 6in, remembers how things turned ugly.
“He is going to try and bully young ones and that’s where I need to learn in the game – how to be stronger,” Gilmour says. “I’ve been working on that and I can only get stronger. But that was a learning curve, definitely, when he gripped me up in the box. I remember that really well.
“Basically he was saying I’m a wee guy. He was pushing me off, gripping me by the throat, and that’s something I have to deal with. But I won’t let that happen again, that’s for sure. That was a lesson.”
When considering Gilmour, it is difficult not to fixate on his size, particularly as his workplace is the battleground of the top-level English football pitch and his position is in front of the backline. Everybody seems to mentions it, as Frank Lampard admitted.
“I remember when he first came on against Sheffield United [for his debut last August] and people questioned: ‘This kid, he looks like a 15-year-old or something,’” the Chelsea manager says. “I remember, individually, someone saying that to me.”
But with Gilmour, as Lampard adds in the next breath, it does not matter “because if he is small in stature, he is huge in personality and talent”. The former is certainly the buzz word when it comes to Gilmour. Lampard said Gilmour had shown “real personality” on Chelsea’s pre-season trip to Ireland, when he played against Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic.
And former Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fàbregas said the same after Gilmour had impressed against Grimsby in the 7-1 Carabao Cup win last September – his second appearance for the club and first start. “Personality is the most important at this age and he’s got it all right,” Fàbregas said.
Gilmour vowed after the Maguire incident that he would not be pushed around again and the way he asserted himself in the 2-0 FA Cup win against Liverpool on Tuesday was a major part of his man of the match performance.
Extra training
There was crisp and effective passing from him, lovely skills and awareness of space but, at the same time, grit, which was first in evidence when he crunched into a challenge on Curtis Jones. He knows that he has to earn the right to play his game.
“Most folk would say that because I’m small I won’t do that but I love a good tackle and I’ve done two and come out on top so that’s good,” Gilmour says.
Nor was he afraid to shout instructions to more established teammates.
“I’m not here to be a quiet player; I need to tell folk to get into position. I have to communicate – specifically with my position and the way that I play.”
Gilmour has always been a single-minded individual who has football in his blood. His father, Billy Sr, played at the lower levels of the Scottish game in Ayrshire and his younger brother, Harvey, is a prospect in the youth set-up at Kilmarnock.
Gilmour swapped Rangers for Chelsea as a 16-year-old in the summer of 2017 and he is not the type to allow fame to go to his head. He modelled for Burberry in September 2017 but he did so with the minimum of fuss. For him it is all about football, putting in extra training and study to improve himself. Fàbregas is an idol and, although he did not train with him at Chelsea, he has poured over footage of him.
“When I first came to Chelsea, we were given IEPs [individual education plans] and you had to focus yourself on a player. Mine was Cesc. I loved how he played. I watched a lot of videos of him and now I’m older I’ve tried to put it into the games and it’s working.”
With Jorginho suspended for three matches and N’Golo Kanté and Mateo Kovacic injured, Gilmour can feel the knock of opportunity and it may also come at international level. Steve Clarke, Scotland’s head coach, was at Stamford Bridge for the Liverpool game and he would have liked what he saw. Gilmour has already represented Scotland from under 15 to under-21 level.
“I was speaking to Andy Robertson [the Liverpool defender and Scotland captain] and he told me after the game [that Clarke was there],” Gilmour says. “Who are my Scottish role models? There is the captain and Scott McTominay. Also John McGinn. But, at the same time, I’m trying to get into the squad so I need to push myself.”
With Gilmour, that is a given.
– Guardian
