Billy Gilmour on Conte’s Napoli, nights out with McTominay and paying tribute to Maradona

A few days before Christmas, the tight, winding streets of the Quartieri Spagnoli were packed. They always are these days. Naples is in the grip of a tourism boom, with millions of visitors drawn here by Elena Ferrante, by Gomorrah, by Mare Fuori, all of them determined to stroll the streets of the city’s perfectly Instagrammable ancient heart.

Their destination is always the same. At times, particularly in the evening, the crowds waiting for a glimpse of the towering mural of Diego Maradona on Via Emanuele de Deo can be so dense that the whole place grinds to a halt, a snaking human traffic jam spilling out from the cramped square itself onto the alleys that surround it.

Standing patiently in line is not, of course, an option for Napoli’s current players. Should they wish to pay obeisance to the club’s greatest icon, the city’s patron saint — or even just indulge in a simple bit of tourism — then it is necessary to take special measures.

The older hands at the club know that the trick is timing. “You have to go at night,” said Matteo Politano, now in his fifth year at Napoli, a Roman by birth who qualifies as a Neapolitan by adoption. “You have dinner, you wait for a little while, and then you go late. Really late, like two or three in the morning.”

That particular piece of wisdom, though, had not been passed on to Billy Gilmour, Napoli’s Scottish midfielder, when his family flew out to visit him a few months ago. He wanted to take them to see it, but he knew he had to go incognito.

“It was easier because it was winter,” he said. “I had my hood up, sunglasses on, a big scarf. It was busy. Really busy. But it’s amazing.” He managed to get to the piazza, to see how Naples honours its heroes, and to escape unnoticed, just another face in the crowd.

That has not been Gilmour’s only taste of Naples in the seven months since he arrived in Italy, cherry-picked and headhunted by Antonio Conte. Conventional wisdom has it that Naples is not a place where players can live a normal life; the city is too small, too familiar and, above all, too fervent.

The club, generally, lets new arrivals know that there is a non-zero chance they will be mobbed if they appear in public. Gilmour, though, has found that judicious expeditions are possible. “You can go out,” he said. “You do get noticed, but it’s a nice thing. People just want to congratulate you, to tell you to keep doing what you’re doing.”

There are certain limitations. He and fellow Scotland international Scott McTominay joined Napoli at the same time — indeed, they consulted each other on their moves — and have since become almost inseparable. They live close to each other, just outside the city; they share the services of Mario, a private chef; they sit next to each other at mealtimes and in the dressing room.

As far as Gilmour is concerned, though, McTominay, who arrived from Manchester United, is a bit of a liability when having an evening meal. “If you go out with Scott, it’s crazy,” he said. The problems are his height and his, well, distinctly northern European colouring. McTominay “sticks out” a little more than Gilmour does. Still, they have seen enough to have a couple of favoured haunts.

“The culture, the lifestyle, the city are totally different,” Gilmour said. “You experience things you wouldn’t back in the UK. It is an eye-opener.” And yet it is immediately apparent that the 23-year-old could not feel more at home.

McTominay and Gilmour on Scotland duty last year (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images)

There is something fitting about that.

As a teenager, Gilmour’s performances for the youth teams of Rangers and the Scottish national side were sufficient to attract the eye not just of the Premier League’s big beasts, but Barcelona, too; one of the club’s scouts privately admitted a degree of surprise that Scotland seemed to have a player cast straight from the Masia mould. From a young age, Gilmour developed a reputation on the continent for possessing virtues that were not, at least traditionally, British.

“When I was younger, my main aim was to play in the Premier League,” Gilmour said, sitting in the same classroom at Napoli’s training facility where he and McTominay have their twice-weekly Italian lessons. “That was my first dream. But I was always told that my style of play would suit playing abroad.”

When the chance arose again last summer, Gilmour said, it was “a bit of a no-brainer”. He had struggled to establish himself at Chelsea, spending a season on loan at Norwich City — “it showed me the other side of football, it put me on the right path” — before moving to Brighton & Hove Albion.

“Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi changed how I played, how I saw football,” he said. “At Chelsea, I was always in and out, not finishing games. In my first season at Brighton, I was doing the same. But in that second one, because we were in Europe as well, I was playing lots of games, I was fit and confident. I was at my very best.”

That form not only ensured that he played in all of Scotland’s games at Euro 2024 but caught Conte’s eye, too. Their paths had crossed previously, albeit briefly: the midfielder’s first season in the club’s youth system coincided with Conte’s turbulent final year as manager of the senior team.

Gilmour lifting the Champions League trophy after Chelsea beat Manchester City in the final in 2021 (David Ramos/Getty Images)

Six years later, the player that Gilmour had become just so happened to fit the profile Conte required. He had made it plain to Napoli that he wanted to sign a midfielder with “personality in playing the ball”, as he would later put it, who might be able to provide cover and competition for Stanislav Lobotka. Gilmour, he felt, had “very similar characteristics”. The player’s enthusiasm for the idea made up Conte’s mind.

Scottish players are, of course, de rigueur in Serie A at the moment. Gilmour had canvassed Lewis Ferguson, the Bologna captain, when he first learned of Napoli’s approach; he had consulted McTominay, too. “I’m pretty close with Lewis,” he said. “I followed him when he was at Bologna, and whenever I saw him with the national team, I’d ask him about Italy. I just wanted to hear it from a second source, really.”

Gilmour has needed to be a little more patient than he might have liked to join the ever-growing list of Scottish regulars in Serie A. He began against Milan on Sunday and provided the assist for what proved to be Romelu Lukaku’s winner for the hosts on the night. Yet he has largely served as an understudy to Lobotka, as Conte had intimated, making 18 appearances in Serie A, nine of them starts; he has already had to cede the nickname ‘Braveheart’ to McTominay.

There is, though, no sense of frustration. “I want to play as much as possible, obviously,” Gilmour said. “But we have a great squad, with really good players. We have a manager who understands when players are hurt, or when they need resting. We train hard and we work hard. The senior players, (Giovanni) Di Lorenzo, Politano, Leonardo Spinazzola: they make sure the standards are high, all of the time. They don’t let you drop. That is good for me.”

When he has had the chance, he has invariably stood out. Conte wrapped him in a bear hug as he left the field after helping to orchestrate a win against Milan in October, then lavished him with praise after a “great” performance in a 1-1 draw with Inter on March 1.

Gilmour playing for Napoli in Serie A (Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

That point may yet be crucial: it ensured that Napoli remain in contention for the Serie A title as the season enters its final rounds. Conte has already suggested that Gilmour may play a more prominent role in the next few weeks. He has had to wait for his opportunities, but nobody is in any doubt that they are coming.

Gilmour might have been able to blend in with the teeming masses in the Quartieri Spagnoli just before Christmas, but if he helps Napoli over the line for a second championship in three years, there is no chance at all of him ever being just another face in the crowd.

(Top photo: Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)