Knox urges young star Gilmour to stay at Ibrox

ARCHIE KNOX has spoken of his despair at the circus surrounding the future of 15-year-old Rangers prospect Billy Gilmour.

The former Rangers No 2 is pained to note the battle for the heart and mind of the teenager and his family that has broken out through Chelsea’s attempts to coax Gilmour to London.

However, Knox can only hope that Rangers prevail in that scrap for his services before he is able to move for a £500,000 fee in the summer.

For he believes the Ibrox protege must be allowed to develop under the care of Rangers on the firstteam fringes instead of potentially swallowed up by Chelsea’s system. ‘My advice to any of the lads is to stick with what you’ve got and see how you are going to progress because you can go to these places and just be another number,’ said Knox.

‘That amount of money is nothing to the likes of Chelsea. If that lad progresses and comes through into the first team, then they’ve saved a fortune. However, how do you know at that age?

‘I’ve seen the lad playing. He’s talented, he can look after the ball but there’s so many other things to take into account.

‘How’s he going to be size-wise? He might be as good as Lionel Messi but how many of them is there? I’m not saying they have to be giants.

‘But Billy Gilmour is 15! I’ve only seen two players in my entire life that I’ve been associated with at 15 that you’d put money on to be absolutely top players — Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs.

‘All the rest, (Paul) Scholes, (Nicky) Butt, (David) Beckham, the Neville brothers, you wouldn’t have known for sure.

‘We really just shouldn’t be putting lads under that sort of pressure at 15. It’s a complete nonsense.’

Archie Knox was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.