Overlooked Billy Gilmour has been cut from Chelsea's pre-season tour of the US with a loan move away looking more and more likely for the Scotland star.
Gilmour is highly-rated at Stamford Bridge but minutes under German boss Thomas Tuchel have been hard to come by. He endured a difficult loan stint at Norwich last season where he was unfairly scapegoated by home fans, whose abuse caused the former Rangers star's family to stop coming to games to watch him.
Everton have been linked with a loan switch and the logic behind that one is clear with Frank Lampard, who gave him his big break at Stamford Bridge, now in charge at Goodison Park. And it appears a move could well be on the agenda after Gilmour was cut from their Stateside tour, with Tuchel keen to streamline the training camp as much as possible. Chelsea recently signed Raheem Sterling from Manchester City and Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli and Tuchel had to send players home to make room.
As a result, Gilmour, Tino Anjorin and Harvey Vale were sent back from Las Vegas to train with the U23s until the first-team return next week. Tuchel told Chelsea TV: "It was a very difficult decision because nobody deserves to go and I would've loved to have everybody here. Tino, Harvey and Billy train at really a high level and it would've been nice to see them in some matches.
"In the end we had to take the decision to keep the quality up high in training so we decided for 24 players as a maximum. That's why we made the group a bit smaller."
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