Gilmour has big choice to make as Robertson is given assurance
RANGERS will receive more than just a development fee if Billy Gilmour moves to Chelsea this summer after agreeing a deal with the Premier League leaders for their promising midfielder.
However, the Ibrox club still remain hopeful the 15-year-old playmaker will decide to stay with them and launch his professional career in Scotland.
Gilmour has attracted the interest of several of Europe’s leading clubs, including Arsenal and Barcelona, but Chelsea have emerged as the strong favourites to secure his services this summer.
But speaking at the launch of a community engagement initiative at Ibrox yesterday, Stewart Robertson, the Rangers managing director, confirmed an agreement has been reached which will ensure they are properly reimbursed for their investment in the player.
“We would love Billy Gilmour to stay, but we need to protect our position and do the sensible thing because if he goes in the summer without a deal being agreed then he leaves only for a compensation amount,” said Robertson.
“That would be a helluva lot less than if we had a fee agreed beforehand. We have protected our position on that side of things.
“We have got a position agreed if he was to go. I won’t tell you the number. It would be negligent of us not to have done that in terms of the governance of the club, but we’d rather not get the money and Billy stayed and went on to have a great career at Rangers.”
Malky Mackay, the SFA performance director, stated this week that Gilmour would have a better chance of breaking into the first team at Rangers than he would at Chelsea and should remain in Glasgow.
Robertson (inset) stressed that officials and coaching staff at the Ibrox club were still optimistic the Scotland Under-16 internationalist, who has held talks with new manager Pedro Caixinha about his future, would stay after he turns 16 on June 11.
“Everybody on the football side thinks he’s a fantastic talent and he’s still only 15,” he said. “It would be great to see a boy like that develop and stay here to get a lot of game time and go further.
“As Malky Mackay said, do we really want to see him get lost in a big academy? I hope not because he would certainly be looked after here and be given an opportunity.
“I think there’s a reasonable chance Gilmour will stay. We’ve done all we can. We’ve tried to sell Rangers and the opportunities to him in the best possible way on the basis of his career going forward. We’d give him a platform to go forward.
“But if there are other big clubs, then we’re all human and his head could be turned. But we believe we could give him a platform to have a terrific career going forward.
“He’s under contract until he is 16 in June. Ultimately, in that situation the player has the power to some extent. There is only so much you can do. You put your best foot forward and we’ve done that.”
Meanwhile, Robertson has stressed the appointment of a coach with previous experience of working at Rangers to the backroom team at Ibrox will be entirely the decision of Caixinha.
The Portuguese has been interviewing potential candidates for the role and former players John Brown, Barry Ferguson, Jonatan Johansson, Peter Lovenkrands and Alex Rae have all been spoken to about the role.
“I don’t know if it will be this week,” said Rober tson. “Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later, but again it’s more important that we get the right man.
“Pedro is conducting the interviews because he’s the guy who has to work with him. It’s really important that he feels he can build a relationship and build a trust with the person coming in so we’re leaving that up to him, and the final decision on who he wants to go with.
“Pedro himself said he wanted a local man or a local guy. Your Rangers connection could be as strong or as tenuous as you like, depending on how long you’ve been here or if you’re a fan.
“It will come down to it being someone he thinks he can work with and who knows Scottish football. If there is a Rangers connection there, great, but ultimately it will be what the guy can do on the training field that will be important.” Robertson has also revealed that Rangers have renewed their search for a director of football and had spoken to their new manager about the appointment. “I won’t put a timeframe on it, but we are applying some brainpower to that again,” he said. “We will have a conversation with him [Caixinha], but we will narrow it down to our key candidates. He’s already bought into the structure, he knows that’s the one we are going for and he’s quite comfortable with that. “His relationship with Pedro will be key going forward. “In an ideal world, you would have the director of football in and he’d then appoint the manager and then he’d bring players in. That’s if life goes in a straight line, but very rarely does life go in a straight line. We will make contingency plans behind this to make sure that recruitment still happens over the summer.”
He’s under contract until he is 16 in June. In that situation, the player has the power to some extent. There is only so much you can do