Kovacic gives verdict on Euro 2020 star, as Chelsea defender to miss both pre-season & Premier league start
Chelsea midfielder and Croatian international Mateo Kovacic has backed Billy Gilmour to be a key player for Chelsea in the future.
Kovacic and Gilmour were due to go head-to-head at Hampden earlier this week when Croatia faced Scotland before Gilmour was ruled out by a positive Covid test.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to play against Billy but I did talk with him on the phone as soon as it came out that he was positive,” said Kovacic.
“Of course I was very sad about that because he is doing excellently and he is my team-mate. I felt sad for him.
“He has had an excellent season and his qualities cannot even be brought into question. He is still a young player but he has played a lot of good matches for Chelsea and for his national team.
“He is definitely going to be one of the better players for Chelsea and an important player for Chelsea in the near future.”
“I don’t give him too much advice, but we do talk a lot,” Kovacic added. “I mean, we are together every day at our club.
“I have seen Billy’s abilities from the first time he started training with the first team. He can become a really excellent player, so it is up to him to work hard and to get better with each day. I am sure that, with his personality, he is going to do that.”
Chelsea defender to miss both pre-season & Premier league start
Chelsea defender Malang Sarr has been called up by France to represent Les Bleus in the Tokyo Olympics later this summer.
The Blues defender, who joined the club on a free transfer from Nice last summer, will likely miss the entire pre-season campaign in west London with matches at the Olympics set to be played between July 21 and August 7.
Sarr, 22, was loaned out by Chelsea to Porto for the 2020/21 campaign, where he played 19 times across all competitions.
However, he struggled for game time in the second half of the campaign and was not named in Porto’s matchday squad for 11 of their final 12 games of the season, the other he was an unused substitute for.
Sarr did play eight times for the Porto B team towards the back end of the campaign and was likely to head out on loan once again this season from Chelsea, with Thomas Tuchel having plenty of options at centre half.
Sarr will be joined by Arsenal centre back William Saliba in the France squad for the Games, Edouard Camvinga who has attracted plenty of transfer interest this summer, and Andre Pierre-Gignac, who has scored 149 pals for Mexican outfit Tigres over the past five years.
Sarr was always seen as one for the future at Chelsea and when he became available on a free transfer last summer, the Blues were quick to pounce and beat the likes of Arsenal to his signature.