CHELSEA boss Thomas Tuchel has challenged Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour to fight for his place at Norwich City and insists he is not even thinking about recalling the player from his loan in January.
Gilmour has not played a single minute in the Canaries’ last three games and will not be able to face his parent club in today’s clash at Stamford Bridge.
It has been a different story at national level with the 20-year-old having started six of the last Scotland games that he has been available for.
However, Tuchel has backed fellow German and Norwich boss Daniel Farke’s decision not to play the talented youngster and instead told Gilmour he needs to prove he is good enough to start games at the Carrow Road club.
Tuchel said: “In general, I love Billy, I’ve always loved him. He was a big factor - maybe not in the full spotlight - for last season when we came here.
“He decided to go for a better chance to have some minutes and we thought that was important.
“First of all, I want him to perform. It’s more or less the same for how you make it into our team, by pure performance.
“If you decide to go on loan then it is as simple as that and I don’t mean to be harsh, you need to perform, you need to be on the pitch.
“You have to be the top player, no matter where you go, if you want to make it back here and improve your status.
“He is our player, we love Billy, we are aware of what he can do but changing club is always a risk and a new step.
“It can also be a positive to overcome adversity. Now is not the time to talk about coming back, it’s time to fight for his place and show what he can do.
“We trust him that he can play a role and of course nobody is obliged to play our players. No coach in the world will leave his best players out, so that’s what he needs to prove, that Norwich is a better team with him in.
“I trust that he can do it and hopefully he does not lose this trust in himself and can turn things around again.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel