Gilmour shock means MUCH more than qualification

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Gilmour shock means MUCH more than qualification
Billy Gilmour Chelsea of Scotland gives a thumb up at full time during the UEFA 2020 European Championship, EM, Europameisterschaft group match between England and Scotland at Wembley Stadium, London, England on 18 June 2021. PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUK Copyright: xMarkxHawkinsx PMI-4258-0112

The Billy Gilmour Covid shock has almost certainly cost Scotland a potential place in the KO stages, but more importantly long term has implications on Scottish football on a larger scale.

Scotland, as a football nation, has been deeply backwards with youth. With everything, really, but especially youth.

Steve Clarke only included Gilmour (along with Patterson and Turnbull) as a token gesture he wasn’t even prepared to use, but after massive media and fan pressure, he buckled at last and started the 20-year old against England.

Gilmour ran the show with a world class display, won MOTM and truly announced himself on the global stage as a special player whose sky is the limit.

And suddenly Scotland were in with a serious chance of the next stage – before Covid then stole Gilmour away and the odds changed hugely.

And here’s the crux of the issue – that Steve Clarke, Steven Gerrard and most Scotland-based managers are so reticent to use young players, and when they finally do give them a chance said youth blows everyone away, so much so that after one appearance they already appear indispensable.

In short, the fact we will miss Gilmour v Croatia only highlights how backwards Scotland is as a nation that the NT refused to use him, and Rangers wouldn’t give him a pathway to the seniors either.

But he finally gets his chance and makes a mockery of that.

Yes, his absence is a game changer v Zlatko Dalic’s side – Gilmour’s control, precision, vision and class on the ball not to mention composure and maturity would have been vital v Croatia, and now we’re back to the Scotland who huffed and puffed to defeat v Czech Rep.

All because Scotland doesn’t like to trust youth in the first place.

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