I do feel a bit for Billy Gilmour

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

Its not his fault we made the decision to sign him despite him being completely unsuitable for our style of football. At least, its not his fault that Farke abandoned possession football in about 5 games (and carried on by Dean Smith).

Its not his fault that Scotland fans, Chelsea fans and sections of the media massively overhyped him based on a couple of good performances. That performance against England looks a bit less impressive now that Southgate is showing that the stars might have just aligned for him for a period, he's increasingly looking a bit clueless.

He's never done anything worthy of being disliked really, and it did get too personal. He's frankly not a Premier League standard footballer, and really its a bit of a damning indictment on Webbers recruitment again really for buying into the hype, even some of the more honest Chelsea fans admit that a few of his handful of Chelsea appearances were a bit of a shambles, and one on reddit today has said that he's always given the ball away too often..

I'm sure he's a decent player who will have a decent career, but he's a victim in all of this really isn't he, the media hype machine putting the pressure on him, probably originating in the Scottish press where they are really desperate to find a world class player who isn't a full back, been several decades since they've had one, meanwhile Ireland have churned out Robbie Keane and Wales have churned out Ramsay and Bale, and other top class talents like Bellamy. They were desperate for Gilmour to be 'the one', but he frankly isn't. 

 I don't think he's even declared himself the second coming of Jesus Christ. In hindsight Chelsea should really have sent him out to the Championship like Southampton did with Reed and Spurs did with Skipp. Chelsea failed him if anything, a loan to the Championship would have taken the pressure off and served as a wake up call to the delusional. Meanwhile, he probably wouldn't have pulled up any trees and his offers this summer if anything would have been a further Championship loan. just like Harrison Reed who had 3 x full season loans before reaching the Premier League as a regular (and they undoubtedly improved him as a player).

If he goes to Everton its a mistake again. He should be in the Championship learning his craft, and he has a lot to learn.

Its a shame for the lad and his family that they've been left with a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to Norwich fans, and its something we should be a bit ashamed by, but I don't think  Norwich City is really where the bulk of the blame should lie. If there is any group of people that should have known he wasn't ready for the Premier League and needed a year in the Championship it is Chelsea coaches. They are to blame.

Edited July 19, 2022 by TeemuVanBasten

[Pyro Pete 2,353]

Sorry, I'm not reading 7 paragraphs on wee Billy.

[ron obvious 1,711]

Completely true. So long as a player does his best there's not much more he can do, & he appeared to do that. Unfortunately he just wasn't very good, & fans will inevitably get frustrated with a poor player & just as inevitably vent those frustrations.

Edited July 19, 2022 by ron obvious

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

4 minutes ago, Pyro Pete said:

Sorry, I'm not reading 7 paragraphs on wee Billy.

[Branston Pickle 4,144]

Yes, a bit much to read on a hot day - but if the gist is feeling a bit sorry for the guy, then yes I’m probably with you.  Transfers don’t always work out though, such is life.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

3 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

Yes, a bit much to read on a hot day - but if the gist is feeling a bit sorry for the guy, then yes I’m probably with you.  Transfers don’t always work out though, such is life.

GIST: Feel a bit sorry for him, wasn't his fault, didn't do anything to deserve the vitriol, Norwich fans should a bit ashamed at his treatment, but the ultimate blame lies with Chelsea coaches who should have identified that his first loan should have been to the Championship, and that's where he should be this season, a move to Everton will be a mistake too. Good example of player playing regularly and improving in the Championship is Harrison Reed, who had 3 x full season loans at 3 different clubs which improved him as a player. Is that summarised enough? Bit in bold I was trying to emphasise. 

[rock bus 1,055]

For me the blame lies with both Farke and Smith for continuingly playing him when everybody could see he was a bit pants and well out of his depth.

[Nuff Said 5,957]

Like others have said tl;dr - but why now TVB? Bored?

[Capt. Pants 5,003]

On the other hand he will have learnt a lot, especially regarding club selection. I suspect Chelsea is too big for him, but he has a lot to offer yet.

Good luck to him because his perceived failure with us wasn't due to lack effort.

 

[cambridgeshire canary 7,797]

If  only he had stayed away from Cantwells girlfriend..

[Walcombe canary 81]

Agree with Capt. Pants. Not Billy's fault. We required an experienced Midfielder with Premiership games under his belt. Not a young up and coming player. Billy will have learnt a lot. Let's hope our Board learns

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

7 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

Like others have said tl;dr - but why now TVB? Bored?

Article on the Pinkun front page today, where he said his parents had to stop attending games due to the vitriol. 

[Nuff Said 5,957]

1 minute ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Article on the Pinkun front page today, where he said his parents had to stop attending games due to the vitriol. 

No need for that, I don’t know what’s wrong with people.

[TheGunnShow 7,376]

Wasn't Farke's best decision, that one. I can see why he'd be wanted in a Farke side - in theory a deep-lying playmaker who is good on the ball could get regular counter-attacks going and in doing so, theoretically drive the other team onto the back foot somewhat, or at least make them think twice about heavy pressing.

Farke always had form for that, hence Leitner and then Vrancic. 

The problem was that it took the balance of the team clean out, especially when you factor in Skipp's positioning and Buendia's tigerish work out of possession. Lees-Melou looked like an attempt at getting a more box-to-box version of Stiepermann, and Normann seemed to be grabbed as a minder who could play forward as a hybrid Tettey upgrade, but it didn't work at all.

As others said, he tried. Can't fault his effort, and he did keep trying to play even when we were struggling. Can't fault him for that, but he was a classic case of wrong player at the wrong time.

Edited July 19, 2022 by TheGunnShow

[kirku 1,358]

If we'd had Skipp in the Prem and Gilmour in the Champ, might've been a different story.

As OP said, never going to be suited to a team scrapping for PL survival and would've been far better off trying his hand at one of the top Champ teams instead.

Too many people, including our recruitment team, drank the Kool Aid it seems..

[canarydan23 4,758]

13 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Wasn't Farke's best decision, that one. I can see why he'd be wanted in a Farke side - in theory a deep-lying playmaker who is good on the ball could get regular counter-attacks going and in doing so, theoretically drive the other team onto the back foot somewhat, or at least make them think twice about heavy pressing.

Farke always had form for that, hence Leitner and then Vrancic. 

The problem was that it took the balance of the team clean out, especially when you factor in Skipp's positioning and Buendia's tigerish work out of possession. Lees-Melou looked like an attempt at getting a more box-to-box version of Stiepermann, and Normann seemed to be grabbed as a minder who could play forward as a hybrid Tettey upgrade, but it didn't work at all.

As others said, he tried. Can't fault his effort, and he did keep trying to play even when we were struggling. Can't fault him for that, but he was a classic case of wrong player at the wrong time.

Was it Farke's decision? The Athletic reported that his preference was a quality over quantity approach, with his wish list being a marquee centre-half, a Skipp-replacement and a Buendia-replacement. No diminutive Scottish playermaker there. It was apparently Webber who wanted the quantity-over-quality as he feared Farke's hard training regime may leave them light.

My feeling is if Farke had full autonomy over transfers we'd never have had the misfortune of seeing Gilmour in a Norwich shirt.

[TheGunnShow 7,376]

1 minute ago, canarydan23 said:

Was it Farke's decision? The Athletic reported that his preference was a quality over quantity approach, with his wish list being a marquee centre-half, a Skipp-replacement and a Buendia-replacement. No diminutive Scottish playermaker there. It was apparently Webber who wanted the quantity-over-quality as he feared Farke's hard training regime may leave them light.

My feeling is if Farke had full autonomy over transfers we'd never have had the misfortune of seeing Gilmour in a Norwich shirt.

Thought both Farke and Webber were keen on getting him in? Memory could be playing tricks on me, but Farke never shied away from a promising youngster unless their attitude gave him reason to rethink (Marcus Edwards or even Patrick Roberts).

[Mello Yello 2,571]

I did feel sympathy for Billy....not the ideal appointment to a struggling Prem side....

[Michael Starr 571]

The biggest issue was that Norwich took a lot of stick from Chelsea fans for Gilmour and I think it boiled over at Palace. "He's world class", "he's too good for Norwich" etc... The kid arrived under huge expectation from both Norwich and Chelsea fans

[NorthCarolinaYellow 199]

Stop it. He's a privileged adult getting paid well to play a game for a living. He was terrible and deserved criticism. If he can't take it he's in the wrong damn profession.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

14 minutes ago, NorthCarolinaYellow said:

Stop it. He's a privileged adult getting paid well to play a game for a living. He was terrible and deserved criticism. If he can't take it he's in the wrong damn profession.

Did you even bother to read the article?

Where have you got the impression that he "can't take it". 

Personally i still think such a loan can be character building, just as Kane's terrible loan drove him on to prove himself, he's said as such himself.

Can still symphasise with a young man whose parents felt affected by it, and our fans did go over the top a couple of times. He suffered the consequence of delusional armchair Chelsea fans exaggerating his talent, but there were plenty of other poor performers last season. I'll tell you now... I'd be cheesed off if we signed him again this season, but I'd still rather him than Placheta.

At least Gilmour looks like he can have some sort of career in football, I'm frankly amazed that a Championship side have taken Placheta. 

Gilmour always looked for the ball, can't ask more than that. Often I'd rather the ball was given for somebody else, and at times he was a liability, but he looked to try and get on the ball. I swear I can't remember Placheta ever trying to beat a man, he's Raymond De Waard levels of useless. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by TeemuVanBasten

[KeiranShikari 1,524]

The fact his family stopped turning up because of a handful of fans is actually embarrassing. I'd be more upset about that than the 'abuse' if I were him. 

[Ken Hairy 4,272]

I don't, he's paid handsomely despite his lack of talent, time to move on from one of the worst transfer dealings the club ever made. 

[city4eva 242]

Don’t feel sorry for him, he is on fantastic wages and has great life to look fwd to, whatever division he ends up on

[city4eva 242]

10 minutes ago, KeiranShikari said:

The fact his family stopped turning up because of a handful of fans is actually embarrassing. I'd be more upset about that than the 'abuse' if I were him. 

Didn’t know they stopped coming, when was that ?

[If wed kept Howie.. 298]

1 hour ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

If  only he had stayed away from Cantwells girlfriend..

you should probably look up "libel" in the dictionary

Edited July 19, 2022 by If wed kept Howie..

[hogesar 10,755]

1 hour ago, TheGunnShow said:

Thought both Farke and Webber were keen on getting him in? Memory could be playing tricks on me, but Farke never shied away from a promising youngster unless their attitude gave him reason to rethink (Marcus Edwards or even Patrick Roberts).

Farke was pretty happy when we signed him. Billy said part of what convinced him to join was Farke calling him to explain how exactly he see's him fitting in the team etc. And of course, to begin with, he was starting games for us too, so Farke obviously rated him.

In regards to the OP, he's correct. Gilmour didn't stop trying, didn't stop running and did try and make himself available to receive the ball regardless of anything else. He wasn't very good, but didn't deserve the personal vitriol which only happened because he was bigged up by the media.

Some of the Chelsea lot should look at themselves too, their media and fans made a big deal of what a privilege it was Norwich got to have Gilmour and that clearly p*ssed off some of our supporters when the performances didn't match up. Again, none of that is BG's fault.

[TheGunnShow 7,376]

6 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Farke was pretty happy when we signed him. Billy said part of what convinced him to join was Farke calling him to explain how exactly he see's him fitting in the team etc. And of course, to begin with, he was starting games for us too, so Farke obviously rated him.

In regards to the OP, he's correct. Gilmour didn't stop trying, didn't stop running and did try and make himself available to receive the ball regardless of anything else. He wasn't very good, but didn't deserve the personal vitriol which only happened because he was bigged up by the media.

Some of the Chelsea lot should look at themselves too, their media and fans made a big deal of what a privilege it was Norwich got to have Gilmour and that clearly p*ssed off some of our supporters when the performances didn't match up. Again, none of that is BG's fault.

Agree. I'd argue that a deep-lying playmaker is extremely dependent on the quality of the players in front. If he's not got much to aim at, he's got real problems. Gilmour liked to get forward when the balls were on, but he passed sideways a heck of a lot simply as the options weren't there.

Someone said he'd have been superb for us in the Champs. I totally concur with that.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

26 minutes ago, KeiranShikari said:

The fact his family stopped turning up because of a handful of fans is actually embarrassing. I'd be more upset about that than the 'abuse' if I were him. 

If it were you son though you'd want to chin them wouldn't you?

[canarydan23 4,758]

1 hour ago, TheGunnShow said:

Thought both Farke and Webber were keen on getting him in? Memory could be playing tricks on me, but Farke never shied away from a promising youngster unless their attitude gave him reason to rethink (Marcus Edwards or even Patrick Roberts).

From memory, Farke said he was happy to have him when it was announced, but as the Athletic said, his three priorities were centre-half, DM, creative replacement for Buendia.

Having said that, Farke was hardly going to come out and say, "What a **** signing, I didn't want him at all". The fact he dropped him pretty pronto is telling.