The Scotland star is on the verge of winning his first league title in Italy but hasn’t been a regular under Antonio Conte
Billy Gilmour is on the cusp of title glory with Napoli. But the Scotland playmaker could have a major decision to make this summer.
Gilmour and fellow Braveheart Scott McTominay are just three games away from winning Serie A as Antonio Conte’s table-toppers hold a precious three-point lead over chasers Inter Milan.
It would mark an astonishing debut campaign for the pair, who swapped the Premier League for the Italian top-flight last August.
McTominay has been a sensation in Naples and recently shattered Denis Law’s record of being the all-time top-scoring Scot in Italian football.
The ex-Manchester United man’s hero status has even been elevated to a new level after he was officially immortalised with a shrine in the city centre.
Yet while McSauce continues to steal the headlines, fellow Scot Gilmour has flown under the radar at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
The ex-Brighton, Chelsea and Rangers midfielder has started just 13 of his 27 outings for Gli Azzurri, with most of his appearances coming from the bench.
Even if the 23-year-old lifts the famous Coppa Campioni d’Italia above his head this month, Pat Nevin believes he’ll be weighing up his options in pursuit of regular first-team action.
And the ex-Scotland star believes a return to Ibrox where it all started – or even across the city at Celtic Park – could be on the cards if Gilmour wants to play week in, week out.
In an exclusive interview with Record Sport, courtesy of NewBettingSites.uk, Nevin said: “It is wild with Billy. It was exactly the same when he was at Brighton. It was exactly the same when he was at Chelsea. Then he was at Norwich as well. You are thinking, ‘What on earth is going on?’.
“We know how brilliant he is, the teams know how brilliant he is, but he’s not getting many starts. Every manager he’s worked with loves him. He’s a very, very strange player because for whatever reason, he’s not seeming to get game time every week, wherever he goes.
“There’s no point in him dropping down to a rubbish level. It doesn’t suit him. That became very, very clear at Norwich. So he needs to stay at a very top-level team that’s technically capable.
“In reality, there are two ways of looking at it. Billy, accept that you are going to be one of those players who play half of the games every season.
“By the way, the reason is because he doesn’t create and doesn’t score, that’s the reason. If he created and scored, he’d be playing every week for top teams because he controls games.
“So you’ve got two choices. Choice number one is accept that’s your career, that’s your life, that’s what happens. You are going to play with some great clubs, win some trophies, people are going to love you and you are going to play until you’re 40 because you’re going to be relaxed and that’s a good career for Billy.
“The other possibility, I wonder if Celtic and Rangers need a controlling, creative player. It is that one where, if he comes up to Celtic or Rangers, he takes over from Callum McGregor or becomes the new Barry Ferguson. That’s it.
“I’m not sure where else with Billy. That sounds like a weird choice but I actually think that’s the choice that Billy has got now. For some people, I don’t know what it would be. For me, I want to play football. I would just go wherever I could play, because I loved playing football.
“But I don’t know what Billy will think. Whatever he thinks, I would back him on it. I would just say the most important thing, ‘As long as you are available for Scotland mate, I don’t care!'”
