[Albion] Napoli interested in Billy Gilmour **Sold 30/08/24**

[Gilmour Fan]

Email PB to ask for official answer.
Half what Mctominoy going for to same club

My understanding from what's been said, but who knows:
New manager, new system, doesn't think he can fit new system due to physicality etc
Billy wants game time (understandably given his contribution last season)
Gets offer from Napoli and wants to go
Club respect him as a person given the way he has handled himself throughout and also probably think he doesn't deserve to sit on a bench so are willing to let him go for a lower price
But, maybe there is a twist yet as it seems Huerzeler does now want to keep him. Perhaps hadn't appreciated quite how good he is?
Guess we'll see over next few days.

 

[Change at Barnham]

I’m sorry but I don’t be arsed to rummage through 1,136 responses to this thread but can anyone tell me why WBG is, if all the estimates are to be believed, going to be let go to Napoli for such a derisory amount of money

Because he is deemed to be a squad player and he wants regular football. If he stays at Brighton he's likely to get fewer minutes than he wants.
The fee is dictated by market demand. There are obviously very few clubs who are prepared to pay any more than £20m for him and his value could drop further if he isn't playing.

The majority of Albion fans feel he is a talented player who they would have in any match day squad because of his high quality passing. Selfishly we want him to stay even if he isn't starting regularly.

The 'suggested' low fee is the surprising factor though. The data must be telling potential buyers something that is preventing them from bidding.
The data shows what he actually produces rather than how good he looks to our naked eye.

I'd keep Billy, but it's not my money.
If £18m (massive guess) for Billy Gilmour buys a left-sided defender that will give us experienced cover, then perhaps it's something that the club needs to consider.

FH mentioned that Billy knows how he feels about him, which indicated to me that FH would like to have Billy stay and fight for a place even if he's unlikely to start.
If he goes to Napoli Conte must have convinced Billy that he sees him as a regular starter. I just hope for his sake he doesn't go and just sits on the bench.

If he is to go we need another club to come in and start bidding more than £20m.

 

[severnside gull]

A final fee of £20m based on achievable bonuses with an added sell-on would be a reasonable fee for a midfield playmaker whose contribution doesn’t extend to chance creation or goal scoring (£10m more for McTominay who does the latter). Competitive as he is he’s not going to be an automatic starter here with the signings we are making.
I don’t think a fee had been agreed at the lower figures reported but if Napoli have now reached a sensible number and WBG wants to go I think it’s a deal that makes sense overall.

 

[severnside gull]

Double post

 

[Withdean11]

I'm a bit puzzled to see this is still on(?) after his performance on saturday. Barber, Weir and Hürzeler must be very confident that we have better players ready to replace him.

If we sell him on a cheap it has to be a part of our conspiracy to hurt the cashflow at chelsea(assuming they have a shell on %)

I think it's far more to do with the system that FH wants to play than it is a reflection on WBG. His role (deeper of the midfield 3) will become the one that slots into CB in the longer term, which i can't see Billy doing mainly due to his height. Weiffer was probably signed for this role with the possibility of a defender/Baleba being the backup.

Billy doesn't offer enough going forward to be considered in the other midfield roles IMO.

Real shame to lose him, especially after a performance like that, but he's going to want to play in a system that suits him.

 

[Surf's Up]

I totally get the reasons why the club might let him go, although Fabian's late interest in him after Saturday's game complicates matters, but this will, arguably, be the second time he will have been transferred for what seems to be a relatively low fee (i think he cost us £7m from Chelsea - a fee that had their fans up in arms about how little we paid for him). And in spite of all the reasons why we're letting him go and the sum of the fee detailed in this blog I still think it's bloody cheap and if the tables were reversed I'm bloody sure Napoli would be after top dollar!!

 

[Gilmour Fan]

I totally get the reasons why the club might let him go, although Fabian's late interest in him after Saturday's game complicates matters, but this will, arguably, be the second time he will have been transferred for what seems to be a relatively low fee (i think he cost us £7m from Chelsea - a fee that had their fans up in arms about how little we paid for him). And in spite of all the reasons why we're letting him go and the sum of the fee detailed in this blog I still think it's bloody cheap and if the tables were reversed I'm bloody sure Napoli would be after top dollar!!

I genuinely do think it's partly because he is Scottish and not subject to the same media hype English payers are. And also just an assumption he can't be that good because he is Scottish. Similarly if he was from a bigger European nation I'm sure he would be worth more...

 

[Littlemo]

I think that this is a lot like the Mac Allister transfer tbh.

I think that Napoli are being seriously overlooked as a club, by us fans tbh. They are a big club, won Serie A not last season but the season before, they play Champions League football on a regular basis. He has a very decent chance of winning things there.

So this is a very good move for him and I think the club simply recognises this and aren’t trying to stand in his way too much. It’s also good optics for us as a club, that young players coming here will get the chance to shine, move to bigger clubs and that we won’t be overly difficult about it when the time comes.

 

[luge]

I think that this is a lot like the Mac Allister transfer tbh.

I think that Napoli are being seriously overlooked as a club, by us fans tbh. They are a big club, won Serie A not last season but the season before, they play Champions League football on a regular basis. He has a very decent chance of winning things there.

So this is a very good move for him and I think the club simply recognises this and aren’t trying to stand in his way too much. It’s also good optics for us as a club, that young players coming here will get the chance to shine, move to bigger clubs and that we won’t be overly difficult about it when the time comes.

The club do have to be seen to be selling players - although with Undav and Gross they have ticked that box this year.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I totally get the reasons why the club might let him go, although Fabian's late interest in him after Saturday's game complicates matters, but this will, arguably, be the second time he will have been transferred for what seems to be a relatively low fee (i think he cost us £7m from Chelsea - a fee that had their fans up in arms about how little we paid for him). And in spite of all the reasons why we're letting him go and the sum of the fee detailed in this blog I still think it's bloody cheap and if the tables were reversed I'm bloody sure Napoli would be after top dollar!!

They'd be after it - but would they get it?

Gilmour's reported move to Napoli has been very public for weeks - and the fact that he is apparently available, at such a modest price does not seem to have prompted any other clubs to get involved.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I think it's far more to do with the system that FH wants to play than it is a reflection on WBG. His role (deeper of the midfield 3) will become the one that slots into CB in the longer term, which i can't see Billy doing mainly due to his height. Weiffer was probably signed for this role with the possibility of a defender/Baleba being the backup.

Billy doesn't offer enough going forward to be considered in the other midfield roles IMO.

Real shame to lose him, especially after a performance like that, but he's going to want to play in a system that suits him.

Ideally, we want a player who is a cross between Baleba and Gilmour as Wieffer back-up but we sold Caicedo!

However, WBG has done very well in his two appearances in what appears to be Hürzeler’s ‘transition’ formation. It could be that we see a lot of this set-up, even when Hürzeler has got his other line-up firing. There is then the argument that Gilmour could be first choice under the current system because his passing is elite.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Apologies if concerns already but does anyone recall if Chelsea have a sell on clause for WBG? If I recall we got for c£7-8m?

 

[Triggaaar]

I genuinely do think it's partly because he is Scottish and not subject to the same media hype English payers are. And also just an assumption he can't be that good because he is Scottish. Similarly if he was from a bigger European nation I'm sure he would be worth more...

Do you mean for buying clubs? Because we wouldn't sell him if he was good enough (in our system) to be in the first 11.

 

[Gilmour Fan]

Do you mean for buying clubs? Because we wouldn't sell him if he was good enough (in our system) to be in the first 11.

Yes, buying clubs

 

[dazzer6666]

I think that this is a lot like the Mac Allister transfer tbh.

I think that Napoli are being seriously overlooked as a club, by us fans tbh. They are a big club, won Serie A not last season but the season before, they play Champions League football on a regular basis. He has a very decent chance of winning things there.

So this is a very good move for him and I think the club simply recognises this and aren’t trying to stand in his way too much. It’s also good optics for us as a club, that young players coming here will get the chance to shine, move to bigger clubs and that we won’t be overly difficult about it when the time comes.

I don’t think it’s anything like the Mac Allister transfer.

We and he knew he was destined for a bigger club - different to this
He knew he was guaranteed first team football here - different to this
He had a year left on his contract in the lead-up to the WC, could have gone for a much lower fee but he agreed to a new contract with release options which helped us secure a much higher fee - different to this

 

[Littlemo]

Do you mean for buying clubs? Because we wouldn't sell him if he was good enough (in our system) to be in the first 11.

I don’t agree with this at all. It’s clear we’ve been trying to get him to stay and don’t want to sell him, and the time he has played in FH’s team so far showed he is fine in his system.

He’s perfectly good enough to be in the first 11 in our system, and it’s only been spurious guessing from fans that lead to a conclusion otherwise. I suspect they are letting him go because it’s a good move for him and we will get a profit on him.

 

[trueblue]

What a load of tosh. No chance we’d be negotiating in that way.

Seems odd that one performance would change our stance - doesn't seem like that's the way we normally judge players' values. Other Twitter Twatter this morning on another Italian site (Calcio something or other) felt likely to be nearer the mark. Deal is on hold because Albion aren't desperate to sell and Napoli want the money in from Osimhen first.

 

[dazzer6666]

Seems odd that one performance would change our stance - doesn't seem like that's the way we normally judge players' values. Other Twitter Twatter this morning on another Italian site (Calcio something or other) felt likely to be nearer the mark. Deal is on hold because Albion aren't desperate to sell and Napoli want the money in from Osimhen first.

That would make far more sense.

 

[Littlemo]

I don’t think it’s anything like the Mac Allister transfer.

We and he knew he was destined for a bigger club - different to this
He knew he was guaranteed first team football here - different to this
He had a year left on his contract in the lead-up to the WC, could have gone for a much lower fee but he agreed to a new contract with release options which helped us secure a much higher fee - different to this

Is Napoli not a bigger club than us?

I disagree with not being guaranteed first team football, I think he’d have as much reassurance of that as anyone else in the team would have, or we wouldn’t be trying to get him to stay. Fans have been the ones saying he won’t play or he’d be behind others but I can’t see any basis for that from the club tbh, in fact playing him instead of Baleba on Sat even though he’s probably away, suggests the opposite to me.

I don’t know how long Gilmour has left on his contract but I think it’s longer than a year?

 

[dazzer6666]

Is Napoli not a bigger club than us?

I disagree with not being guaranteed first team football, I think he’d have as much reassurance of that as anyone else in the team would have, or we wouldn’t be trying to get him to stay. Fans have been the ones saying he won’t play or he’d be behind others but I can’t see any basis for that from the club tbh, in fact playing him instead of Baleba on Sat even though he’s probably away, suggests the opposite to me.

I don’t know how long Gilmour has left on his contract but I think it’s longer than a year?

I didn’t comment on whether Napoli was bigger. The point here is Ali Mac was destined for a bigger club. WBG I’m not so sure.

He played on Saturday because Wieffer was carrying a niggle.

Yes he does have more than a year. That’s exactly my point. Ali Mac didn’t but agreed to a new contract knowing he had a good chance of leaving anyway