Video: Gilmour reveals Napoli rap music helping him and McTominay | OneFootball

Napoli midfielder Billy Gilmour reveals he and Scott McTominay are listening to Neapolitan rap music in order to get more of a feel for the city, while he spills on what it’s like working with Antonio Conte and Roberto De Zerbi.

While English players have traditionally not always settled into Italian football, numerous Scotland internationals have now come through Serie A and made their mark.

“The identity here is very passionate. Scottish people are very passionate about what they do, so it’s very similar,” Gilmour told Radio CRC.

“I’ve been here three and a half months and of course it’s very difficult moving to a different country, learning the language, so for me it’s about settling in as quickly as possible and hopefully do well on the pitch to help my teammates.

“It’s been very different, the teams are really well-organised, it’s a tough league. Every game has been very hard, we have to make sure we’re on it on the day, make the fans happy, keep progressing and getting better as a team.”

Gilmour is trying to learn Italian and it is early days, but he is helped by working with a coach like Antonio Conte who he first met when in the Chelsea youth team.

“I met Conte when I was 16 at Chelsea. I had a couple of meetings with him on the pitch, I went over to train twice to get the experience.

“Cesc Fabregas was the top midfielder in that team, I looked up to him.”

Gilmour spent one season with another Italian coach, Roberto De Zerbi, at Brighton and Hove Albion.

“He’s definitely played a big part in my career and I really enjoyed Brighton in general. It was of course hard to say I want to leave, but it’s been an amazing club, amazing people, I wish them all the best and still look for their scores at the weekend.

“They’re both top managers, so for me to experience coaches like Conte and De Zerbi is always going to be good for me. They have a different way of playing, at times very similar, but they are very different in their own ways.”

Napoli’s midfielder Scott McTominay (2-L) and his teammates celebrate the 2-1 goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match SSC Napoli vs Como 1907 at Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples, Italy, 04 October 2024. EPA-EFE/CESARE ABBATE

Napoli lost their last two competitive games, both of them against Lazio in the Coppa Italia and Serie A, an unexpected hiccup in the campaign.

“We watched the games back, we were very disappointed, but we need to get ourselves together. It was just a little bump in the road, we are learning how to understand each other, we need to be confident going into the next game and feel positive,” assured Gilmour.

He arrived at the same time as fellow Scotland international McTominay, so who out of the pair of them has absorbed Neapolitan culture more so far?

“Probably Scott. We know some Neapolitan singers, so we try to listen to the music. It’s rap like Geolier, he’s good! We have maybe two songs when we first came the taxi driver played this song and said you have to listen.”

Gilmour on settling in at Napoli