The former Ibrox youngster has struggled for game time this season, since moving in a £7million deal from Chelsea to Brighton & Hove Albion. The lack of minutes has resulted in the player falling down the pecking order with Scotland. He was an unused substitute during the recent Euro 2024 qualifying wins over Spain and Cyprus. He's not featured for the national team in the last five competitive fixtures.

Having started just four matches for Brighton this campaign, Ferguson reckons if he “is not going to get game time next season then he has to start planning ahead for a big decision this summer”. A return to Ibrix would, in Ferguson's eyes, allow the player to “showcase his quality” and get back into the Scotland team for Euro 2024.

“If I was in charge of recruitment at Rangers, I’d be throwing the kitchen sink at trying to give him something to think about,” he wrote in his Daily Record column. “They’d be crazy not to give it a shot. Look, it might be too rich for my old club’s blood. I’m not sure if they could match the fee Brighton will demand and they’ll certainly struggle to pay the same level of EPL wages. But it’s not about making top dollar right now. It’s about what’s best for Gilmour’s career.

"If he got the chance to showcase his quality week in, week out at Rangers he’d wouldn’t just play his way back into Clarke’s starting XI for the Euros - he’d be able to take his pick when it came to his next big transfer somewhere down the line.”

He added: “And that’s the beauty of having a man like Clarke in the national job. He has proven that, when a player is simply too good to leave out of his team, he will find a way of getting him into that line-up. And he’s mixing and matching his midfield options to get the best out of them all. But Gilmour, fully fit and firing on all cylinders? As good as Scotland are right now, they’d be even better with Billy in that team.”

'Crazy not to give it a shot' - Why Rangers return would help reignite Billy Gilmour's Scotland career

Comments