COMMENT: For Billy Gilmour, it's been a nightmare. This preseason, certainly. But it doesn't begin and end with Thomas Tuchel's decision to dump him from Chelsea's senior tour squad...

A year ago Gilmour was on top of the world. Outstanding for Scotland at Wembley against hosts England. The then 20 year-old was the best player on the pitch. All those claims of him being the 'new Iniesta' or the 'Scottish Xavi' were ringing true. That attempt by Barcelona to ferry him away from Rangers before Chelsea stepped in was now understandable.

Fast forward 12 months and the midfielder is at a crossroads. But it must be said, this is not all of his own making. Indeed far from it. And for this column, as much as Tuchel says the right things publicly, he needs to do better - much better - by his young Scottish midfielder.

A year ago Gilmour, at 20, was Scotland's No1 player. Today? Well, today - during this preseason - he's running around with Chelsea's development squad. Not the U23s. Not the reserves. But virtually the U18s, playing the likes of Toronto reserves. On paper, it borders on the ridiculous. A senior Scotland international. At 21 years of age. And he's running around with kids? Some of whom haven't yet experienced Prem 2 football? This really is ridiculous.

And making it even more baffling was the season Gilmour has just endured out on-loan with Norwich City. Again, just like this preseason, it was a nightmare. A disaster. Jeered by his own fans - and to the point where his family chose to stay away from Carrow Road. Chelsea's loan team, it has be said, did wrong by the Scot. Gilmour's character doesn't need developing. His attitude has never come into question. Even this preseason, before it had kicked off, Gilmour had been training for weeks at his local club in Scotland, Glenafton. What benefit was it to the player to leave him to run the Canaries gauntlet as Chelsea did last season?

And the same question can now be leveled at Tuchel. With the lad's confidence shot. With that self-belief wavering. You'd expect his club. His manager. Everyone who have worked with Gilmour these past five years. You'd expect them to circle the wagons. Bring the kid in close. And put a protective arm around him.

Gilmour after facing England at Euro 2020

Yet Tuchel chose the opposite route, jettisoning Gilmour from his tour squad to join Mark Robinson, Chelsea's new development coach, and his squad at Salt Lake for a round of underage games. The reasoning put forward was that Gilmour, along Armando Broja, Tino Anjorin and Harvey Vale were being released in order to tie up loan moves away. But if that was the case, wouldn't it have been easier for Gilmour to have returned to London to be closer to such negotiations?

"The decisions we took [to send players away], I didn't like it, to be honest, because all the players deserved to stay here," Tuchel insisted last week. "All of the players deserved to stay here and play here. The guys you mentioned were doing fantastic in training, were heavily involved and were fit.

"But these are the decisions to take. We know Billy Gilmour very well. I struggle a bit to find the role where Tino Anjorin plays but we like him very much, Harvey the same.

"They know from my talk with them that I didn't like sending them away but the group was too big. We had the chance not to send them home straight away but to play in America."

As we say, Tuchel talks a good game. But this decision doesn't do anything positive for Gilmour's progress. Indeed, Anjorin and Broja both flew back to England last week, with the former tying up a loan move to Huddersfield Town. Why Gilmour couldn't do the same is baffling. Even working with the likes of N'Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek back at Cobham would surely have been a better option for his confidence and self-belief than starting games with and against players four and five years his junior.

Embarrassing? Humiliating? Gilmour would never say such things out loud. But on paper? From a 60,000ft view? How else can you read it?

The word from Cobham is that many on the coaching staff still rate Gilmour - and highly. But for this column, those running the loan programme must know they chose wrong when placing him at a Norwich City which always were favourites to go down last season. That was an error. A mistake. And it can happen in football. But the response of Tuchel this preseason really cannot be excused.

If management regard Gilmour as a ten-year player. One to build the next great team around. When he's at his lowest, you don't build the player back up by banishing him to the other side of a foreign country to work with the kids. How such a decision actually benefits Gilmour only Tuchel can explain, but treating a senior international like this doesn't suggest he has big plans for the midfielder over the coming years.

For some inside the Scottish game, they'd like to see Gilmour show more fight in terms of winning that first team place in Chelsea's squad. But Tuchel hasn't even given the midfielder a chance to fail at that.

At 21. As a senior international. Billy Gilmour should not be playing park football with 16 and 17 year-old kids. Just like the experience at Carrow Road, it's been a nightmare preseason for the Scot. And his manager at Chelsea has done nothing to improve it.