JOIN US IN STIRLING FOR A NIGHT OF CELEBRATION FIND OUT MORE
Date: 10th June 2026
2026 06 06 A Gilmour View Didn’t he once manage Cheslea?
By Donald C Stewart
A view from the sofa, as I, along with many Scotland fans, are unable to get a second mortgage to attend the World Cup in the USA and so am on the sofa. With a virtual Billy Gilmour by my side, also from Ayrshire I shall be looking out for the bizarre and daft that makes this summer, hopefully, a World Cup to remember….
Familiar names and unfamiliar roles. Managers who have plied their trade in the Premiership or the Scottish Premier League over the last 10 to 20 years seem to be popping up managing international teams from countries to which they have very intangible connections.
Take the managerial hoky-koky that The General, Dick Advocaat, former Rangers boss had with Curacao who came to be demolished by Scotland at Hampden the other week.
As I turn to young Billy, his eyes are wide and agog “Ah ken him!”
And so, he does. Not Advocaat, but a certain manager of Sweden, who apparently feels Swedish. Billy moved from Chelsea to Brighton too work with him! In March 2026 Billy’s former boss celebrated what he called the greatest night of his career! It happened at the Strawberry Stadium (We are not, Billy and I, making this up) as his team won a playoff final and he inadvisedly pronounced, “we are going to the World Cup baby.”
Swedish manager Graham Potter does not have a tenuous link, however, to the World Cup team that will be in Group F.
Potter made his managerial career in Sweden, having taken Ostersunds FK from the fourth tier to the top-flight, winning the domestic cup and getting into Europe. He learned Swedish whilst he was there and then was noticed by Swansea City and offered an opportunity to come over to England.
Potter obviously was enticed with a much better salary package than he was enjoying in Sweden, and things turned out well for him as he went off to Brighton and Hove Albion, where Billy was keen to go and work with him!
Thomas Tuchel, the current England manager didnae fancy Billy and decided that he was surplus to requirements. Ironically, it was ironic, therefore, that Gilmour’s exit coincided with Potter being touted as Tuchel’s successor at… Chelsea. Potter lest Brighton around a week after Billy arrived!!
Of course, Potter didn’t thrive as well as Gilmour did and Gilmour’s move to Napoli seems to have lit a fire under the young man’s career.
Potter, meanwhile, has recovered and now managed Sweden’s entry into the World Cup.
Group F sees him in against Tunisia, the Netherlands and Japan.
Potters rise to become the national manager in the midst of Sweden enduring a terrible World Cup campaign. They failed to win a single game in their qualifying group!! It included drawing with Slovenia, being beaten by Kosovo, losing to Switzerland. Then, in the repeat fixtures, losing again to Kosovo, being thumped by Switzerland away and then drawing once more with Slovenia.
And so, just weeks after having been sacked by West Ham, potter was appointed as their new manger as their Nations League standing got them into the playoffs. Potter managed all four games in which they managed to squeak past Ukraine in the final with an 88th minute strike.
They were the last to qualify, of course, they didn’t have their pick of where they were going to base their camp and have ended up in a High School in San Diego. It seems to be better facilities than their Japanese counterparts, who this week decided that where they had been put in, in terms of their facilities, was a bit rubbish. They’ve gone and changed it, however, unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a Japanese equivalent of Roy Keane. Don’t expect a Saipan-like film in the future to tell us about how the Japanese fell out because of their facilities.
So, we’re all salivating at the prospect, at the strange, the bizarre and perhaps the Potter magic that is going to weave a magic wand. One also wonders how many Americans are going to mistake Graham Potter as somebody who was once in a film penned by JK Rowling. At least Billy knew the difference as he tucked into another bowl of pasta…
Posted in: Fan's Blog, Latest News
Tags: BILLY GILMOUR, oor Donald, Scottish football, World Cup