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Football London
Football London
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Jake Stokes & Daniel Childs

Thomas Tuchel must heed Billy Gilmour warning amid Roman Abramovich sanction by UK government

Billy Gilmour has struggled to impose himself at Norwich City this season, raising questions as to whether he's ready to reintegrate himself among the Chelsea first-team.

The 20-year-old loanee, who swapped Stamford Bridge for Carrow Road this season in search of game time, has featured 17 times for the Canaries in the Premier League - of which, he's lost 13.

Gilmour's time at Norwich has been hampered by injury and a change of management, disrupting what was thought to be an 'exciting' spell away from the Blues.

However, despite he and the club's best efforts, the stars are yet to have aligned and the Scotsman's future under Thomas Tuchel upon return is, naturally, in question despite the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich, which could see Chelsea rely on players that are already at the club.

Daniel Childs spoke to co-host of the Talk Norwich City fan channel Chris Reeve live on the Carefree Chelsea show to dissect Gilmour's time at Carrow Road this season.

Reeve kickstarted the discussion by outlining how the Scotland international has been the 'most exciting' loan player the Canaries have signed in recent years despite the move not working out.

"Please don't pile on me for saying this and I really want Chelsea fans to try and get their heads in the Norwich City shoes when understanding this," he said.

"On paper and statistically, you look at what Billy Gilmour's done at Norwich and you can say, pass completion, this, this and that.

"Statistically it looks great but the loan move has not worked out for Chelsea, it's not worked out for Billy Gilmour and it's definitely not worked out for Norwich City.

"And, I promise you, it kills me to say that he is the most exciting loan player we've signed since Darren Huckerby, right. This is years worth of waiting for a talent of that caliber to come to Norwich City Football Club - it's a big deal and on paper it looked good."

Reeve continued by explaining how it went from bad to worse for the Chelsea loanee.

"The problem and where I feel sorry for Billy, just like quite a few of the players to be fair, he's he's fallen victim of the changing system," he said.

"When we first came up to the Premier League, we brought in Billy Gilmour, we started Billy Gilmour - it started to not go well so Daniel Farke then pulled Billy as well as Todd Cantwell at the time, which was a big, big talking point.

"Then obviously Daniel Farke gets sacked, new manager comes in, Dean smith starts Billy Gilmour - obviously because he's one of our most talented players - and, again, results don't start to go our away again.

"I can't remember the stats off the top of my head but Norwich City have won more games this season without Billy than with Billy.

"But I'm saying it from a from a position of I actually feel bad for Billy and I feel bad for Chelsea because unfortunately just due to the circumstances, it's not worked out."

Follow our Carefree Chelsea writer Jake Stokes on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below. Make sure you have subscribed to CareFree Chelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team, along with plenty of your football.london favourites, will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy, including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews.

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