Chelsea’s Gilmour joins Norwich City on a loan deal

Billy Gilmour

has made a loan move to

for the next season as the

midfielder wants regular game time.

The 20-year-old, who pulled of a man-of-the-match performance in Scotland’s draw with England at Euro 2020, played only 11 minutes for the Blues in the 2020-21 season.

Gilmour joined Chelsea’s academy in 2017 from Rangers, and attracted a lot of attention when played in the first-team at Stamford Bridge, but falling behind N'Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic in the pecking order, he could hardly find regular football.

He had his debut in the first team when Chelsea went against Sheffield United in 2019, and the Scotland international played in 22 games for the Blues.

Now the 20-year-old has to gain more experience playing for Daniel Farke's Norwich after their remarkable Championship-winning campaign in 2020-21.

The Scottish midfielder has also shown off impressive displays at the international level, having made three senior Scotland caps and had his first start when they were held to a goalless draw against England.

Gilmour told the official club website:

“I’m very excited to be here. I can’t wait for the season ahead. I’ve been looking forward to coming here, playing as much as possible and helping Norwich City compete in the Premier League.

“I spoke to the head coach here. He called me and we had a nice talk about how he wants to play and how he sees me fitting in. Everything he said was what I want to do on the pitch, get the ball down and play nice football. He spoke really highly of his team and I wanted to come join here and help.

“There are very exciting times ahead, coming in for pre-season and seeing all the lads. Let’s get to it.”

Farke added:

“We are really happy to have brought Billy in. We must say a big thank you to Chelsea and all those involved for making this deal happen. I think it helped that in the past we have shown that young players with potential are in good hands here at Norwich City.

“We are delighted to bring Billy in because we’ve lost some players in that area. We’re looking to improve our options, particularly in the centre of the park, and for that we’re happy to bring Billy in.

“We got the feeling that he can help us a lot with his ability to link the play, his technical qualities and also his work against the ball. From the football point of view, but also from his character he is the perfect fit to our squad.

“He will help us to achieve our targets. We still have to keep in mind that he is an unbelievably young guy and that he hasn’t played regularly on this level. We have to give him some time and space to improve and find his rhythm. All in all, we got the feeling that he can help us achieve our targets and he’s a perfect fit for us.”

Follow

for the