Thomas Tuchel has explained Chelsea’s decision to allow Billy Gilmour to leave permanently for Brighton.
To the surprise of some, Chelsea chose to cash in on young midfielder Gilmour by selling him to the Seagulls for around £9m on deadline day.
Gilmour joined Chelsea from Rangers aged 16 and showed huge promise after being handed his breakthrough by former manager Frank Lampard and then, initially, under Tuchel.
But Gilmour found himself out of favour under Tuchel following his return from a loan spell at Norwich last season, among the young players dropped down from the first-team’s pre-season tour of the USA to the 23s group and was only handed a first-team squad number this week as Chelsea found their central midfield options depleted.