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Southampton Top List Of Premier League Clubs Linked With Billy Gilmour

A week ago few people knew much about Billy Gilmour even in Scotland, after all why should they have, here was a player with 259 minutes of Premier League football to his name with Chelsea last season , but now it seems he is hot property and Saints are being linked.

The news that Saints are one of several clubs being linked with Billy Gilmour comes as no surprise and on the face of it looks like a deal that the fans would salivate over, although the truth is that if he arrived it would be hard to see where he would fit into a central midfield at St Mary's that has a lot of competition at the moment.

At Stamford Bridge Gilmour has barely been in the picture, at least in terms of Premier League games, up until May when he suddenly got given 3 starts in the Premier League by new Chelsea coach Tuchel, he had barely got a look in.

But his performance against England last week at Wembley suddenly made him a star.

But that probably doesn't push him up in the ranks at Chelsea that much and one swallow doesn't make a summer as they say and the Blues will want to know as much as anybody whether he can repeat that performance over 38 games a season and more, something he will not get the chance to show at Stamford Bridge at the moment.

So it is likely that Gilmour will be put out on loan next season, having only turned 20 in the last two weeks he needs to get that experience under his belt and Saints are one of the clubs being linked with a loan move for the Scot.

Also names are Norwich, Wolves and Newcastle in what is clearly just the media sticking pins into the bottom half of the Premier League table to make a headline.

But would he get a game at St Mary's ?

At the moment Saints have James Ward Prowse, Oriel Romeu, Ibrahima Diallo and Gilmour's Scotland team mate Stuart Armstrong vying for positions in the centre of the midfield, it is rather a crowded area of the park at St Mary's.

So that perhaps suggests that Gilmour would not get much more of a look in with us than he would at Stamford Bridge.

With two years left on his contract it is a crucial year for him, can he reproduce his good form against England consistently and force his way into Chelsea's side or will he move on and become just another promising Chelsea youngster who has to go elsewhere for his football, after all Mason Mount was struggling to get in Tuchel's side a few months ago.

Even now his transfer value is no higher than £9 million up from £5 million at the start of the season, so whichever club he goes to will be getting potential not experience for a year long loan.

From a Saints perspective we need experience in our side at the the moment and even if we were short in the central midfield department it's not youth we need but players who are proven at a high level and who can make sure that we don't have the issues we had last season.

Looking through Billy Gilmour's eyes, he will see this as his big chance, he cannot afford to go to a club where he isn't playing week in week out, he needs to be able to prove himself at Premier league level.


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