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

[BUTTERBALL]

Disppointed he has left, but wish him well. Billy's been great for us and leaves with a man of the match performance v M United which shows he didn't let his levels drop at any point.

 

[Han Solo]

Interesting take to apply game changer from one game to another. We actually lost the midfield battle a bit against MU and we’re fortunate not to go 1-2. The game changer was Baleba for Milner who tired, and Baleba put us massively on the front foot with his physicality and positivity.

WBG had a decent game though, but that was his time with us in a nutshell - decent.

They were of course more dangerous, but with the quality context taken into account, the midfield performance against United was still better. Had we struggled to connect the team parts against United the same way we did against the worse opposition of Everton, it would have been very hard not to get 2, 3 or 4 in the arse last week.

Anyway, Billy is gone and time will tell if it was the right call to give him up seemingly cheap and with too little fight. There are still a bunch of good midfielders around, its no disaster. Just losing the edge of his world class passing.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Just caught up with FH Arsenal press conference and thought it was interesting the contrast of WBG with say Adam Webster. FH is clear on roles and of AW ‘it’s a shame to put him on the bench’. Imagine he could have said something along those lines for WBG. Suppose it depends how accepting a player is of FH‘s view of having other better options.

 

[Springal]

If we had a game missing MacAllister, Caicedo, Gross - fans would be concerned about our chances in that game.

I don’t ever recall anyone saying ‘oh no no Gilmour today, we are going to lose’

I also saw more from Weiffer against Everton to transition to attack than we’ve ever seen from WBG in my opinion.

 

[Bozza]

You're saying Paul Barber called @Bozza to tell him that the club wanted to get rid of Billy Gilmour? Or am I misunderstanding it?

That would be ridiculous, clearly.

He generally only phones me to give me a bollocking for something I've said.

 

[5Ways Gull]

If Billy was very keen on the move, but we ideally wanted to keep him, the club have done exactly the right thing and in keeping with everything PB et al have said about not standing in the way of players when they want to move on. No-one appears to have been ‘forced’ to do anything.

We seem to have established an MO where players that play the game and respect the club will be supported in moving on to the next stage in their career, where players that take the piss have to wait for us to get maximum wonga.

 

[RandyWanger]

Good move for him and I think he’ll do better in a less physical league. He might even get a goal

 

[Bodian]

I think if you’re trying to unpack why a player didn’t quite make it as a first choice starter, you do consider the factors that perhaps would go against the player, goals and assists being one area for WBG that he lacked in, perhaps physicality another, and maybe technical things only the manager/coaches pick up on.

Bissouma or Caicedo didn’t score many or create many assists, but they excelled in other areas of their game. I thought WBG was very good at times, very good rhythm of passing, but I’m not sure I’d describe him as excelling in any particular area.

I liked Billy but he was a fairly standard midfielder. Yeah he could look very nice on the ball and had some nice passing, good at receiving the ball from the CBs and moving it on, but he wasn't a dribbler, wasn't box to box, wasn't a goal scorer. And without the ball I don't think he's very hot, can't really remember him being a big tackler, poor in the air. Basically there are a lot of attributes he was missing. Being neat on the ball stands out because we have a lot of possession, but I think he was far from being the complete midfielder

I think these things are they key. He was signed to play in a possession based team - where he would be a cog in keeping the ball and moving it around between defence and midfield/attack. But under FH we seem to be less possession-based, and more about winning the ball back to start moves rather than to fanny around with it. This means tackling, pressing, and quick forward play.

Not sure WBG is really suited to our new style.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I think these things are they key. He was signed to play in a possession based team - where he would be a cog in keeping the ball and moving it around between defence and midfield/attack. But under FH we seem to be less possession-based, and more about winning the ball back to start moves rather than to fanny around with it. This means tackling, pressing, and quick forward play.

Not sure WBG is really suited to our new style.

Which is all well and good if the new manager stays for 5 years. Less so if it ends up not going well and we have an early parting of ways ala RDZ.

 

[Bodian]

Which is all well and good if the new manager stays for 5 years. Less so if it ends up not going well and we have an early parting of ways ala RDZ.

Indeed - but there's only so much planning the club can do!

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Indeed - but there's only so much planning the club can do!

Absolutely true. Given the unknown quantity of many of our new players, and how young our new manager is, I’m surprised we didn’t keep him around for some insurance for a while…

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes.

 

[Littlemo]

.

 

[Hiheidi]

Shame he couldn't at least get the club's name right

 

[A mex eyecan]

Shame he couldn't at least get the club's name right

Thats done it! The residents of Hove will be outraged. Seriously though, I do agree with you.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Brighton FC, seriously? I mean really!?

Tsk

 

[sparkie]

Are we still wailing about Gilmour ?

Decent player.
Not a great player. But a good player.

Not Gotsmanov.
Not Zamora.
Not Calderón.
Not Groß.

I can't understand the high pedestal Gilmour has been placed on..

Let him live his Italian dream without the bollocks about "the club FORCED him out".

 

[dwayne]

Are we still wailing about Gilmour ?

Decent player.
Not a great player. But a good player.

Not Gotsmanov.
Not Zamora.
Not Calderón.
Not Groß.

I can't understand the high pedestal Gilmour has been placed on..

Let him live his Italian dream without the bollocks about "the club FORCED him out".

Gotsmanov ?!?

 

[Triggaaar]

Are we still wailing about Gilmour ?

Decent player.
Not a great player. But a good player.

Not Gotsmanov.
Not Zamora.
Not Calderón.
Not Groß.

I can't understand the high pedestal Gilmour has been placed on..

He's not being compared with some great players, we're simply surprised he was allowed to go so cheaply when we're currently short (no pun intended) in midfield.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

Well this move has been rumoured for a long while and no other PL team has come in for him. That should say something about his performance level and the the fee that we received.

 

[Littlemo]

How do we know nobody else enquired about him? Just because we don’t know about it doesn’t mean nobody did. Newcastle were interested at one point apparently. That he said he only wanted to go to Napoli suggests to me he might have had other options.

Anyway, he’s gone now, so we might as well move on.