Napoli midfielder Billy Gilmour closes the 2025-26 Serie A season inside a club that has already begun dismantling the structure around him, with Antonio Conte's departure confirmed via a farewell message on social media and Massimiliano Allegri now expected to take charge at Castel Volpe.
The significance for Gilmour is not sentimental. It is structural. Conte built Napoli's midfield around discipline, positional rigidity, and relentless pressing — a system in which Gilmour, across 16 Serie A appearances this season, carved out a role precise enough to earn an average rating of 7.00. That is a respectable return for a player whose AI overall score sits at 63 out of 100, with a projected ceiling of 75. The gap between those two numbers is the most interesting thing about him right now: it suggests a player still developing, still capable of a significant upward shift, but one who needs the right environment to close that distance.
Allegri's Napoli will be a different environment. Where Conte demanded collective shape and punished individual expression, Allegri has historically granted more freedom to technically gifted midfielders — which could, in theory, suit Gilmour's profile. But Allegri also demands results, and players who cannot impose themselves in high-stakes moments tend to find their minutes quietly redistributed. Gilmour's single goal from 16 appearances is a thin attacking return; it will need to grow.
The club's summer is already busy. Napoli won the Supercoppa Italiana on penalties against Lenergy Pisa in Sardinia, banking silverware before the transfer window fully opens. That title gives the incoming coach a foundation rather than a crisis — and it gives players like Gilmour a collective achievement to build on rather than a deficit to explain.
Scott McTominay, Napoli's other Scottish midfielder, has spoken publicly about how the club transformed him. Gilmour, four years younger than McTominay and still on the ascending side of his development curve, has a comparable opportunity — but the coaching change means the terms of that opportunity have shifted. The system he learned under Conte will not be the system he plays in next August.
At 24, Gilmour has time. What he does not have is the luxury of another transitional season. Allegri will assess the squad he inherits with clear eyes, and a midfielder with one goal and no assists in 16 appearances will need to make an early argument for his place in the new order.