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.

Photo: Action Images

Colburn added 11:00 - Jun 23 Nick, speak for yourself mate.. Most keen football fans have been very aware of Gilmour for a while and know he is a class above any midfielder we have and would walk straight into our team. I am surprised to see your comparison with our current midfielders, it shows that you haven't taken much notice of Gilmour when he has played whether in the Prem or not. I would say we have ZERO chance of signing him but if we did, he would be our best player.. He is that good. Amazed you haven't stated the same rather than suggesting he wouldn't get a game. Maybe do some further research and assessment before committing to such conclusions. Miles off the mark here and I don't believe the rumour anyway, too much of a dream..

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1teeminants added 11:02 - Jun 23 Good click bait Nick lol
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derbydog added 11:20 - Jun 23 I agree with Nick, we don’t need trainee midfielders. Unless we think he could play fullback, or perish the thought we are going to sell JWP...
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Colburn added 11:37 - Jun 23 I agree we don't need trainee midfielders. Gilmour is not this. He will be one of the best in the business in no time and there is no way I can see us being lucky enough to have his services for even one loan season. If you don't think he will be a huge asset to us then I don't believe you have assessed this player properly, merely looked at some stats of game time. He is absolutely mustard and good luck finding any pundit or ex player who will disagree with that!

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Colburn added 11:44 - Jun 23 https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11953133/keane-impressed-b This was over a year ago. Keane also described him as already world class around this time but what does Roy Keane know about football..?
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Butty101 added 11:55 - Jun 23 We were meant to be signing him in the last january window on loan...
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SaintNick added 12:47 - Jun 23 Im sorry to disagree Yes Gilmour might well be a good talent but he hasn't exactly played a lot for these pundits to be so convinced, he has a total of 450 minutes Premier league football to his name, the equivalent of 5 full games . For 30 minutes against England the same pundits who raved about him at the end were saying he was out of his depth and way off the pace A couple of years ago people were raving about Yan Valery he hasnt kicked on, no one is disputing Gilmour has potential You are right I hadnt taken much notice of Gilmour, 450 Premier League minutes and plus another 754 in the 3 cups is hardly enough for anyone to take notice

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Colburn added 13:20 - Jun 23 I only heard a poor biased commentary team suggest he was out of his depth, I prefer to take note of what the top ex players say, not the desperados that say rubbish for the sake of drama or weak debate. Roy Keane isn't exactly the easiest person to please and doesn't dish out such praise lightly. I have watched enough of Gilmour to see he is an incredible player in the making and if you do think he was out of his depth then he certainly learned damn quickly about international tournament football because he was the best midfielder on the pitch by the time the game ended. Sure he's young and raw but he has learned very quickly. If you haven't taken much notice of him then how can you conclude he would not be a good move for us? This is lazy journalism to write an article, come to a conclusion about someone you haven't watched and then give your suggested outcome.. Just by comparing Gilmour to Valery tells me you haven't watched Gilmour at all..they are completely different levels. Fair comment that he hasn't played much but if you had seen him play a bit first, it would help to form a fair and more informed opinion.. Any team outside the top 6 would be mad to turn down the chance to sign him on loan but you can't comment because you haven't watched him.

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allsaint54 added 13:32 - Jun 23 Absolutely no chance of us signing him.
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WestSussexSaint added 15:05 - Jun 23 The headline doesn’t get backed up by the article. How can Saints be top of the list when you say that we are already loaded with players in centre midfield and we need experience not youth. As others have commented from what I have seen of the player he has looked very good (keeping our own Stuart Armstrong out of the Scotland team) so would be a quality addition.

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