Chelsea midfielder Billy Gilmour has joined Norwich City on a season-long loan as the Scotland international seeks regular first-team football in 2021-22.
The 20-year-old, who put in a man-of-the-match display as Scotland drew with England at Euro 2020, made only 11 first-team appearances for the Blues last season.
Gilmour has therefore joined the newly-promoted Canaries for their upcoming Premier League campaign, after Norwich were promoted as champions from the second tier after being relegated in 2019-20.
Why Norwich for Gilmour?
Gilmour, who joined Chelsea's academy from Rangers in 2017, has immediately impressed after stepping up into the first-team picture at Stamford Bridge, but with N'Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and more ahead of him, has found regular game time hard to come by.
After making his first-team debut in a Premier League draw with Sheffield United in August 2019, Gilmour has made 22 senior appearances for Chelsea. Now 20, the time is right for him to get many more games under his belt.
He has therefore moved away from the Champions League winners for the 2021-22 season, and will join up with Daniel Farke's Norwich following their impressive Championship-winning campaign in 2020-21.
Gilmour has also impressed at international level. He has three senior Scotland caps and made his first start in the 0-0 draw with England at Wembley, although he was unable to prevent his country crashing out of the Euros group stages after testing positive for coronavirus before the crucial clash with Croatia.
What has been said?
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.”