Signing Billy Gilmour in July 2017 was one of Chelsea’s academy’s biggest recruitment triumphs given the European-wide competition for Scotland’s best player in a generation and the process was smoothed by the man who would eventually give the teenager his senior debut.

Frank Lampard was at the Cobham training ground then helping out with the club’s junior teams as part of his Uefa A-licence qualification, and was asked to attend the presentation to Gilmour and his parents Billy senior and Carrie that Chelsea hoped would seal the deal. It was led by Jim Fraser, the club’s assistant head of youth development, on whose advice they had prioritised Gilmour, but the presence of Lampard in the room was crucial to convincing the boy to choose Chelsea.

Gilmour and his family were shown clips of the club’s Under-18s by Fraser and Lampard’s current assistant Jody Morris to demonstrate exactly why they felt the teenage midfielder’s sophisticated passing style would suit their development programme. As Gilmour helped deliver his manager a crucial victory in Tuesday’s FA Cup fifth round triumph over Liverpool, just his sixth senior game, the serendipity of Lampard being at Cobham that day two years ago was not lost on the club.