On the eve of his 50th cap for Scotland, Billy Gilmour has plenty cause to reflect on the journey to date with a smile.
Introduced by Steve Clarke shortly before the delayed staging of Euro 2020, the midfielder announced himself with a virtuoso display against England at Wembley.
An integral part of the side which then qualified for Euro 2024, Gilmour’s reputation as the most technically gifted player in the squad was enhanced.
In a dark recess of Hampden yesterday, there was plentiful pride on show at the esteem in which he is clearly held these days by the Tartan Army.
But there’s still much pain to contend with in these moments. Curacao at Hampden at the end of May proved to be a farewell game for the Napoli man for all the wrong reasons.
Hobbling off after an innocuous tackle caused discomfort in his knee, his worst fears were confirmed by a scan later that evening which showed ligament damage. In the time it took the then manager Steve Clarke to convey the bad news, Gilmour was kissing goodbye to his childhood dream of starring in a World Cup.
Billy Gilmour suffered an injury against Curacao that ruled him out of this year’s World Cup
‘It’s probably my lowest point in football and hopefully it stays at that,’ he said. ‘It was tough.
‘Of course, you go out in the game and you’re 90 minutes away from a World Cup, and the first thing you’re thinking is, “Okay, no stupid tackles”, all that stuff. And it happens. You’re dreading it.’
Four months have passed since that fateful day, but time has only been so much of a healer.
‘I was in the car with Steve Clarke after and he told me the news,’ Gilmour recalled. ‘I was upset. I had my family and then it was just me and him in the car. We were just speaking about everything, about life, a bit emotional.
‘But he was really good with me. He told me, “Look, you can’t come to the World Cup, but you’re more than welcome to come with the squad, come in the night before the game, still be a part of it, because you’ve got us here also”. So, credit to him, he helped me.’
As genuine as the offer was, others in Gilmour’s position may have thought twice about accepting it. Aside from the obvious physical discomfort he was in, there might well have been a concern about the situation feeling awkward.
‘I knew I wanted to go,’ he insisted. ‘It didn’t cross my mind not to go. I think when I left it a couple of days, it was, “Okay, I want to go”.
‘The family’s all booked up, friends are all booked up, so it would only be me staying in Scotland watching the games, dwelling on it. So, I thought, go over there, experience it all, experience it from a fan perspective and I did.’
While it was no substitute for starring in the greatest show on earth, it was, in its own right, hugely fulfilling and cathartic. For a couple of weeks, Gilmour was back being the kid from Ayrshire with stars in his eyes.
Steve Clarke told Gilmour to make sure he had another shot at fulfilling his childhood dream
‘That’s it, you don’t get to see the other side of it, like the Tartan Army, the amount of stuff like the parades and all that, the baseball, even just in local parks, the Scotland HQ thing,’ said Gilmour.
‘All that stuff I got to witness and see, I did it with my family and friends, and it was nice.
‘Of course, you want to be on the pitch playing, but it was a great experience. It just makes you think when you put on the shirt how much it means to the fans and all that restarts you again.’
If nothing else, his enforced absence reinforced what it all meant to him – the feeling he got when he made his debut against the Dutch five years ago, with his second run-out coming up quickly against Luxembourg.
‘In the friendly, I got knocked out in that game. I had to come off, I remember that,’ he recalled. ‘It’s a while ago now. A young kid buzzing to go and play for my country and it’s a long way since that.’
The night he stole the show as Clarke’s men claimed a goalless draw in England’s back yard was just around the corner. Not a bad venue to make your first start.
‘I was s****ing myself,’ he laughed. ‘The day before, I remember doing the shape and I was in the team.
‘I could feel nerves but I was excited as well. I was playing England and I had a couple of friends in the English squad at the time. So, I was excited, just a kid buzzing to go and play football.’
A lot of water has since passed under the bridge. There was that ill-fated loan move from Chelsea to Norwich the following season, two far better seasons with Brighton.
And then, of course, came Napoli in a £12million move. A winner of Serie A after just one season. Beyond the stuff of dreams, surely?
Still only 25, he’s seen the good, the bad and the downright extraordinary that you can encounter in the game. It’s all been grist to the mill.
‘I’m a lot more mature,’ he offered when asked to compare his present self with the individual who first arrived in the Scotland set-up.
Gilmour enjoys training ahead of a Nations League game in which he will earn his 50th cap
‘Coming into squads all the time and constantly being the youngest, the older boys always look out for you and help you.
‘Now, as you’re getting older, a lot of new faces have come in, especially this camp, so it’s more of a responsibility.
‘Helping them, keeping them right on the same track, and trying to push forward with what the manager and the skipper would say, how we want to play and how we want to push forward as a nation.’
With Clarke no more, it’s Sebastien Pocognoli’s instructions which Gilmour now helps deliver to the emerging talents at the outset of a new era. But a part of that conversation with the former manager back in May remains as relevant to him now as it did at the time.
Gilmour recalled of Clarke’s words: ‘“Gutted for you”. That was basically the message. He said: “Okay, you miss this one, but make sure you go to the next one”.
‘That was a dream. I’d been at the Euros, but I wanted to go to a World Cup and play, feel how it felt. It’s something I still want to do. I want to go to a World Cup.’
