Gilmour following in famous footsteps
Even as a raw, young talent, Gilmour’s lofty ambition proved he was on the same path as Dalglish and Souness, claims Gemmill
LONG before his touch, vision and awareness were being used as instruments of torture on Merseyside’s finest, Billy Gilmour’s cast-iron mentality and boundless ambition were matters of public record.
‘That’s always been my ambition — to be the best player,’ he said in a rare interview 18 months ago. ‘In the world, yeah. I think every kid’s dream should be that.’
In Scotland, regrettably, there remains no shortage of wellintentioned individuals who would rebuke any player uttering such bold words.
Unable to accept that one can be simultaneously humble and ambitious, that backward mindset has unquestionably inhibited generations of prodigiously talented footballers.
For Scot Gemmill, the attitude exhibited by the Chelsea midfielder isn’t just a welcome bonus. If Gilmour is, indeed, going right to the top and is to remain there, it’s mandatory.
‘I don’t speak to my dad (Archie) about my work too much but I did speak to him in this regard because his generation are perceived as very good,’ said Gemmill.
‘He is hopeless with information like that. But the one thing he did say that resonates with me is that guys like Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness and himself too, in fact the entire (Scotland) dressing room, were sitting there before the game thinking that they were going to be the best player.
‘They wanted to be the best player out there. A few people would say that Billy was immature with what he said but others would say that it shows his hunger and his ambition.
‘But there is a real resonance for me when I hear someone say something like that because I am also hearing it from my father, who mirrored that mentality with the greats of Scottish football.
‘That era had every player wanting to be the best player and unhappy if they weren’t the best player, no matter who they were playing.’
Contrary to some suggestions, the fact Gilmour was included in Gemmill’s Under-21 squad for the forthcoming qualifiers with Croatia and Greece yesterday doesn’t necessarily preclude him from being named next week in Steve Clarke’s senior party for the play-off with Israel.
Despite only appearing seven times for Chelsea at 18, few would claim that the latter scenario would elevate him ahead of his station and ahead of his time.
Likening Gilmour’s introduction to the first-team at Stamford Bridge with the way 16-year-old Wayne Rooney took Everton by storm in 2002, Gemmill has no concerns of the Ayrshire teenager being suddenly struck by vertigo.
‘In that situation, the player’s performances do the talking,’ he explained. ‘The level of the player’s performances, in my opinion, just calms everything down.
‘That’s the challenge to be a top player. We could sit here and find players who can’t do that.
‘To consistently play at that level, some players can do it and some players can’t. That’s the challenge for all of them.’
For all his ability, Gilmour has evidently nourished his talent with hard work. This willingness to do whatever’s required — and often much more — is a trait Gemmill now sees increasingly as standard.
‘That is a given now with young players,’ said the 49-year-old. ‘There has been a huge improvement not just from the players but also the environment that they are in now.
‘The clubs are doing brilliant jobs of educating them and giving them resources, which will obviously vary with the levels.
‘Predominantly now there is no excuse for them and there is also no place to hide. There has been a huge push and the players recognise the work they need to do.
‘I was going to use the word “sacrifice” but I don’t think that’s the right word. It has just become the norm and that is the way it has to be.’
Not due to turn 19 until the day before Euro 2020 is due to begin, Gilmour is very much at the outset of his football journey.
But having drawn such lavish praise lately from, among others, Roy Keane for his scintillating displays against Liverpool and Everton, he is surely entitled to a brief moment of quiet satisfaction. For Gemmill, the sight of seeing the one-time performance school pupil from Kilmarnock’s Grange Academy cradle successive man-of-the-match awards was hugely uplifting. ‘It’s exciting and it’s what we all want to see,’ he said. ‘Historically, people ask, where are all the young players and what is possible? Where are these players and what are they capable of? ‘We have a player who’s actually doing it and confirming his talent, which is really exciting.’ As Everton found to their cost on Sunday, it’s a talent that has been honed into something close to perfection in the three years since Gilmour swapped Ibrox for
Stamford Bridge. Recalling his earliest recollections of the Blues’ man of the moment, though, Gemmill does not see any kind of metamorphosis.
‘It would have been when he played for Rangers in the youth side,’ he said of his first sighting of the midfielder in a match situation. ‘But I saw him training with the performance schools when Andy Goldie was the coach.
‘The characteristics of how he plays were visible. It’s interesting to see any young player (develop) as they don’t really change how they play — if you really zoom in on how they affect games or their technical level, how they receive the ball or check over their shoulder.
‘It’s interesting when you see them when they are at the performance schools, then you watch Billy play in recent games and when he’s on the edge of his box still the ball is coming to him and he’s checking his shoulder.
‘You can see the progression but it’s been in place since he was 12 years old. It’s become standard procedure. It’s second nature.’