WHAT were you doing at 15 years of age?
If you were anything like me the days were filled with hanging about with your mates, listening way too intently to The Smiths, going to the football and rather pathetically lusting after the pretty and completely unattainable girl in French class.
And then you had exams, the hell of puberty, menial Saturday jobs and all the general hoo-ha which goes along with being a moody teenager. None of us were worldly wise. Not in my day. We thought we knew everything when the exact opposite was the case.
Nothing much has changed over the years. Kids look different and act almost alien but the same doubts and fears which have always existed remain.
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Let’s be honest, as people of my age are dragged kicked and screaming into middle age, we look down on today’s 15-year-olds as some sort of sub-species what with their instant grams and appalling music.
For all they try to look older, they are still weans.
This is why my heart goes out to Billy Gilmour who has been asked to take the biggest decision perhaps of his entire life before reaching the age of consent.
On Tuesday, after months of speculation, he moved from Rangers to Chelsea for £500,000, a fee which could rise to seven figures depending on how far he rises at this season’s champions-elect of England.
So that’s half a million spent on a calculated risk. Welcome to football in 2017.
Now before I go on, I have to say I wish young Gilmour every success in the world. I haven’t seen him kick a ball but people who are far better judges than me say he’s a kid with all the ability you would wish to see in a player of his age and has one hell of a chance. Good on him.
I understand why he’s made the move. Chelsea are not short of a few bob and he and his family will be, you have to imagine, handsomely rewarded. There isn’t a lot wrong with that. Who else could turn down a potential life-changing sum of money in these circumstances?
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Also, Rangers for the most part are not at fault here. They have clearly done a fine job in terms of Gilmour’s progress or Chelsea and the many other admirers wouldn’t have been so blatant in their interest. The sad fact for the Ibrox club right now is that half a million quid is a lot of money and they most likely couldn’t afford to turn it down.
It’s some opportunity for Gilmour and while the easy choice would have been to stay, it takes some bravery to move away from home at such a young age.
But I feel sorry for the little lad in the middle of all this, which might sound a tad odd given what has just happened to him.
No football club should be allowed to put so much pressure on a 15-year-old. Maybe I was just really naive but at that age I struggled to pick the right subjects at school never mind what huge football club to join.
If Rangers weren’t skint then there would be a chance, although no guarantee, that this young talent would remain in Scotland at least until his late teens. Instead, when he turns 16 on June 11 he becomes a Chelsea player. That one of our biggest clubs can’t hold on to their best young talent is rather depressing.
It would be fantastic if Gilmour went on to become a superstar. Or at least an established Premier League player. But the odds are heavily stacked against him at Stamford Bridge, which is one of the many reason to have doubts.
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Chelsea currently have 35 players out on loan. It is believed in total that is £135m of talent. They hoover up players from all around the world because they can. But even the absolute cream find it almost impossible to break through.
The feeling down south is the Roman Abramovich’s billions pays for deals such as Gilmour’s and then a few years down the line they sell them on for profit. It’s more like a trading floor than a talent production line.
Gilmour would have had a far better chance of getting a first-team game at Rangers. Indeed, apart from Manchester City there would have been a clearer path at every other club on the British Isles. I just hope he doesn’t become one of those names which disappears from memory after a few years, only to flick back into your consciousness after scoring a goal for Bradford City.
By all accounts he is a fine, young man and a hell of a footballer. It just seems weird and wrong that so much is being asked of someone so young.
Even the most mature 15-year-old has a lot to learn. It can’t be right that someone so young is put in Gilmour’s position. Let’s hope he’s smarter than I was and his choice proves to be the right one for him.
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