'Not ideal' – Brighton chief makes £9m Billy Gilmour transfer admission after Graham Potter exit and Thomas Tuchel Chelsea sacking

Gilmour signed for Brighton from Chelsea for £9m on transfer deadline day and was handed his debut by Potter as a second half substitute during Albion’s 5-2 win against Leicester at the Amex last time out.

Just two days later however, Thomas Tuchel had been sacked at previous club Chelsea and Potter was installed as the new man at the helm at Stamford Bridge.

It’s an unsettling time for Gilmour, who arrived at the south coast on a four year contract, and stated Potter’s style of play was one of the reasons he came.

Barber accepts it’s a tough period as the club continue their search to replace Potter but feels Gilmour, 21, has the maturity to cope.

The club also highlighted the fact that their technical director David Weir was Gilmour’s assistant manager during his time at Rangers.

"It isn't ideal, far from ideal,” said the Albion chief and deputy chairman. “But my experience of working with professional footballers for the last 25 years is that they are resilient and pragmatic.”

"They take a lot of support from senior players at the squad. My limited experience of talking to Billy is that he is a very calm and very mature young man.

"He has been around football all his life and I'm sure he will take this in his stride. He will be helped by the other players and by Andrew Crofts and Shannon Ruth as need be.

"The fortunate position we are in is that we are not facing Premier League matches tomorrow, this week or next week. We have time.

"Billy is still finding his way around the training ground, let alone a new coach. The timing around the transfer window closing was always potentially going to leave one or two players in Billy's situation if this happens.

"Players are resilient and professional and we have a good group and the senior players will bridge any gap that might exist and we will move on from there.”