CHELSEA and Scotland Under 21s starlet Billy Gilmour swapped a chance of playing for Rangers for a development pathway at Chelsea.
And he insists he made the right choice - because Scott Brown would have bullied him off the ball if he had stayed.
The former Ibrox midfielder has been tipped to be the best player of his generation after moving to London last summer in a £500,000 move when Chelsea beat off competition from Manchester United, Manchester City and Bayern Munich to land him when he was just 15.
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A year on and Gilmour has already clinched four trophies with Chelsea's youngsters and has been fast tracked into Scotland Under 21s at the Toulon Tournament.
Gilmour said: "It's been an incredible year for me. I missed the first four games of the season waiting on paperwork to go through and I was getting frustrated.
"But I eventually made my debut against Arsenal and scored in a 2-0 win. From there, everything has gone brilliantly. We've won four trophies in my first season, which has been amazing.
"At Rangers, I was training with the first-team quite a lot. I was only 15 so I couldn't actually get on the pitch. If I was maybe a bit older when I had to make the decision, it might have been different.
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"My friend Harry Cochrane is in Hearts' first-team now and doing really well. If it was later, maybe it would have been a good decision to stay because I'd have been bigger, more developed.
"But I''m not fully developed yet. If I'd matched myself up against Scott Brown, for instance, he'd bully me for a full game.
"He's the best midfielder in Scotland by far so if I had to go up against him, I'd have no chance. Maybe technically, I'd be OK. But in terms of running about and pushing him off the ball - no chance.
"So that's the way I looked at it. Would I have been ready at that stage? The answer would have been no."
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