Chelsea’s Billy Gilmour cannot be stagnated like Ethan Ampadu

Chelsea had seemingly struck gold with Ethan Ampadu. The young Welshman was earning rave reviews and was even starting against Premier League opponents for Antonio Conte. But then, Conte was sacked and Maurizio Sarri came in with his infamous “14 player” idea. Ampadu, in an injury plagued season, didn’t make that 14 man shortlist.

During that season, Ampadu made more appearances for the Welsh National Team than he did for Chelsea. The Blues may have taken that as a hint when they decided a loan to RB Leipzig was a good idea. On paper, it made sense but the Blues couldn’t account for more injuries or Julian Nagelsmann using a back four for much of his first season. Ampadu stagnated another season. It’s no wonder he went on to struggle at Sheffield United this past season, though their collapse was also very unforeseen.

Now the hot prospect is Billy Gilmour. Fresh off a MOTM award in his first Scotland start, Chelsea’s Billy Gilmour is being raved about. His talent is evident, his story reflects Ethan Ampadu’s.

Gilmour spent a good chunk of last season recovering, but he only finished the year with a paltry 11 appearances. At worst, he was never further down than fourth out of four in the depth chart for Thomas Tuchel. And this isn’t exclusively a Tuchel issue, because Frank Lampard also failed to reintegrate the young midfielder as form dipped and he went with experience like most managers do in bad situations.

The main argument about not playing Gilmour is often that Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, and Jorginho are better which is the most blatantly obvious thing to say. The thing is, a club of Chelsea’s quality shouldn’t need to rely on just three midfielders for two positions. Furthermore, the shouldn’t need to play a full best XI every single match day. If Chelsea can’t run the risk of playing Gilmour surrounded by 10 other usual starters, than they have other issues to worry about.

But more than anything, Chelsea can’t let a fantastic talent like this stagnate. There is a poor narrative that came along with Mason Mount and Reece James making it that they were destined to make it. That’s not true at all. There have been other, more highly rated Chelsea youngsters than either. The difference is they were given a chance that others weren’t. Furthermore, when they hit bumps in the road, Chelsea persisted instead of throwing their hands up.

Gilmour plays and puts in man of the match performances. He’s done it in practically every competition now. If Chelsea doesn’t sign a midfielder next season, it would be an absolute shame for him to barely appear for another year. He should be getting far more starts and far more appearances than the eight starts and 11 appearances he got last season. He needs closer to 20, 25 starts and 30 plus appearances to develop.

That’s not saying start him against the best teams over Jorginho or Kovacic as the argument is often straw manned into being. It’s saying when you’re playing Watford, you can afford to give Gilmour a chance. It’s saying when one of the other midfielders is injured, you don’t have to run the other two into the ground. It’s saying don’t waste an obvious talent that could be just as quality as Mount or James if not better.

Gilmour’s MOTM against England was no mistake. He deserves to play more. He can’t be allowed to stagnate in the same way Ethan Ampadu did. He has to play, whether for Chelsea or on loan and he has to be played in the right situations. He has the talent to be a superstar, provided Chelsea doesn’t go down the path they have gone down so often before.