Gilmour’s our next big star, says Mackay

Mackay threw Gilmour in at deep end ... now he’s thrilled to see him make splash at Chelsea

SFA performance director Malky Mackay says Billy Gilmour will be the standard-bearer for Scotland’s ‘next generation’ and is ‘the best player we have had in years’. But Mackay says it is up to Scotland boss Steve Clarke to decide whether to pick the 18-year-old Chelsea midfielder for the Euro 2020 play-offs before the youngster has even completed a single qualifying campaign for the Under-21s. Scot Gemmill will today name Gilmour in his age-group squad for the Euro qualifiers against Croatia at Tynecastle on March 27 and Greece in Heraklion on March 31. But that will not preclude him from being promoted to the senior squad for the showdown with Israel at Hampden on March 26. Asked if the former Rangers youth, who

IT was something stronger than a hunch. A decision based on something more than just the gut feeling of a guy who has spent his entire adult life in football.

Calling up a 16-year-old laddie to play against and alongside the young men who would be gracing the prestigious Toulon Tournament? Worth a shot. If you knew the kid in question.

Before Scotland even set foot in France, both Malky Mackay and Scot Gemmill knew they’d made the right call.

Surveying the rise and rise of young Billy Gilmour, hailed as ‘world class’ by Roy Keane and punted for promotion to the senior Scotland side by just about everyone with access to social media, SFA performance director Mackay can’t help but recall how he and Under-21s head coach Gemmill took a punt on the youngster in the summer of 2018.

‘I am just really proud, as are the rest of the Scottish FA staff who have been dealing with Billy over the last seven years,’ said Mackay.

‘He came into the Grange performance school in Kilmarnock with coach James Grady.

‘Scot Gemmill and myself were taking the Scotland Under-21s to Toulon a couple of years ago and we had a wildcard spot left for a 20th player.

‘We decided to give it to the 16-year-old to see how it went.

‘Our first training session was here before we flew out and, within an hour, Scot is looking at me and thinking: “Wow” and nodding “yes …” because the 20-year-olds were giving the 16-year-old player the ball, which is always a sign.

‘He didn’t play in the first game. We started him against France, a fantastic team.

‘He was showing maturity beyond his years, to the point where he started the semi-final, captained the team in the third/ fourth place play-off, and scored against South Korea, the youngest scorer at that age level.’

Gilmour was named Revelation of the Tournament by Toulon organisers.

Having been lured away from Rangers a year earlier by the promise of working within a well-respected Chelsea youth system, he was already attracting attention all over Europe.

Through it all, he maintained a degree of humility, kept putting in the hard work — and continued to show up any time Scotland called. Regardless of age grade.

Mackay, skirting around the urge to make comparisons with great national team stars of previous eras, said: ‘I am not going to tag him with any name. But I can only say I have been excited about him since he was 16.

‘He came to play for the 21s at one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. They gave him breakout player of the tournament.

‘If you look at the brochure for that tournament, on the front cover they put the top 100 who have played in that tournament.

‘It is a Who’s Who of the best players over the last 25 years. And he wins breakout player of the tournament. I am really proud of him.

‘When the French manager comes up and asks: “Who is your number seven?” at the end of the game, he has done okay.

‘I don’t think Billy has ever missed a camp, either. He has a desperate desire to pull that Scotland jersey on.

‘He was involved with 17s, 19s, and 21s — and I asked him to go back to the 19s and captain them in the elite round of the Euros with Billy Stark. There wasn’t even a blink. It was: “Of course”. ‘There is talent here but, with top players, talent has to be matched up with those two or three things that make top players what they are.

‘That comes down to sacrifice, dedication, hard work and single-minded focus to just be a footballer. ‘He is a flag-bearer for that and that is what is setting him apart — and those things have made Frank Lampard, I believe, fast-track him even quicker than he should have.’

Chelsea are currently reaping the benefits of a player and character who has, so far, seemed utterly unfazed by any fresh challenge.

Liverpool in the FA Cup was a breeze. The manly madness of a Premier League midfield was made to look like child’s play against Everton on Sunday.

Mackay hands enormous credit to Lampard for helping Scotland’s brightest young talent to shine, saying: ‘Billy is probably thinking that this has happened very quickly.

‘Having spoken to him, his plan was to come through the 18s, then the under-23s at Chelsea, then a year out on loan.

‘If you look at Mason Mount, for example, who is a year older, he went out to Vitesse and then Derby — then came into the squad after 80-100 games playing against men.

‘As far as Billy is concerned, that was a plan for him as well, to go out on loan this year. Maybe other aspects have overtaken that.

‘Firstly, Chelsea have a young manager who was obviously very good friends with Jody Morris, who was the reserve manager at the time. Frank was in and around Billy’s group when he was training, so he knows him really well. It wasn’t a manager coming in cold.

‘Secondly, the performances for the 23s for a boy of his age. And, thirdly, Chelsea’s circumstance, what happened in terms of their (transfer) ban — they couldn’t go out and spend.

‘Once you go in, you grab your chance — and my goodness, he has done that.’

If Gilmour’s skills and reading of the game have caused him to stand out — along with that typically Scottish aggression that is serving him well in a key area of the Chelsea team — there’s something else about the teenager that sets him apart. His willingness to boss far more experienced team-mates around.

‘I noticed that when he made his debut in the Carabao Cup a couple of months ago at Old Trafford,’ said Mackay.

‘There was a point when he got it, gave it to Kurt Zouma, then screamed at him and pointed wide where he should play the ball. And Zouma played the ball there.

‘It is something he does regularly in our games because he is dictating the game. But to actually do it to experienced full internationals...

‘The fact that they are responding to it isn’t really a surprise because they are training with him every day.

‘The minute someone comes into a session and you think: “Wow, he can handle the ball, look what he has done there”, they command immediate respect.’