Souness believes the Blues should follow Manchester City’s path with how they developed Phil Foden, who came through the ranks at the Etihad Stadium.
Gilmour is considered as one of the most exciting talents in Europe and he is currently not getting enough playing chances due to the availability of senior players like N’golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic.
Many have suggested that the Scotland international will be better off with a loan move away from Stamford Bridge in order to learn the ropes and comeback as a better player, but Souness believes his compatriot should stay in West London and get better training with the first team.
“I’d personally keep him at Chelsea,” the former Scotland international told Sky Sports.
“I think Jorginho has to be looking over his shoulder. He’ll be challenging him more than anyone else. I look at Phil Foden at City and Pep [Guardiola] didn’t let him go out on loan.
“I look back on my own career and think how did I improve – there was no words of wisdom, no sentence any coach said to me, there was no watershed moment in my career where I turned a corner.
“What made me better, I was 23, went to Liverpool, arguably the best team in the world – certainly the best team in Europe – and I was playing with fabulous players in training every single day.
“I learnt to think quicker, to improve my touch, move the ball quicker and just being around winners – Chelsea have got bundles of them – that will improve him more than playing in a lesser team where it’s a battle every week. That’s how I see it, Phil Foden is an argument for that.”
Gilmour played only eleven times in all competitions for the first team in the 2020/2021 season.
