Thomas Tuchel has explained why Billy Gilmour controversially left Chelsea despite the club's injury crisis. The 21-year-old was tipped by many for a bright future at Stamford Bridge so, when the club decided to cash-in, the sale came as a huge shock; even more so with the Blues having suffered numerous injuries in midfield this season.
Gilmour featured just 22 times for the west Londoners since joining from Rangers in 2017, aged 16. Despite having shown glimpses of great promise from select appearances, the Scotland international was never truly trusted by Tuchel.
Upon the Scotsman's return to Cobham for pre-season training this summer, he found himself out of favour under the German. Gimour was relegated to the under-23s squad and was only recently handed a first-team squad number - albeit a few weeks into the new Premier League season.
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As a result, the midfielder decided that enough was enough and pushed for an exit against Tuchel's wish. The Blues boss has admitted that he wanted Gilmour to stay at Chelsea, but his persistence to leave left the German helpless in his stance.
Giving Gilmour a harsh, but honest, verdict on his time at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel said: "We had high hopes and he played for us in the first half-a-year when I was at Chelsea, played some important matches for us and looked for a new challenge that did not go so well for him with Norwich.
"We expected more, he expected more so it was like, without pointing a finger, but it is difficult also for him and for us to not succeed, to not play at Norwich, to be relegated and then suddenly be a central midfielder for Chelsea and competing for top four and for every title.
"There's a huge step in between so we were looking. The ideal solution would have been maybe that he goes again on loan as the concurrence is huge for us in central midfield and we felt like he is not the age where he can live again with five or seven or eight matches during a whole season to fulfil his own potential so ideally it would have been another loan. Billy did not want to go on loan, it was a no-go for him so in the end we agreed to a sale."
As a result, Gimour has penned a four-year deal with Brighton and Hove Albion. Chelsea reached an agreement with the Seagulls, with the deal worth an initial £7.5million which could rise to £9million.
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