Canaries loan player Billy Gilmour should return to his parent club Chelsea rather than waste six months of his career, according to a former Premier League star.

The Scotland international was the subject of abuse from some of the travelling fans during City’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Tuesday.

But former Aston Villa attacker Gabby Agbonlahor says City would be a lot worse off without Gilmour.

“Sometimes fans want a scapegoat so they pick on a loanee, a 20-year-old loanee,” Agbonlahor said in an interview on Talksport.

“They’ll be worse off without him. They are losing three, four, five nils – they’ll be losing eight, nine nils without Gilmour because for me he’s a quality player.

“I can’t believe the audacity of the Norwich fans to chant that and I hope it’s a small section, maybe the away fans.

“I hope the home fans wouldn’t sing that because he’s a 20-year-old footballer, we’ve seen what he’s done in a Scotland shirt, seen what he’s done for Chelsea.

“If I am Chelsea now, I’m bringing him back now - ‘pack your stuff, get yourself back and we’re going to find you a club in January that are going to play to your strengths’.

“He’s playing with Championship players. They’re not good enough, the players he’s playing with. He needs to play with players that want to play football, with him, his sort of football. He's going to waste six months of his career staying there until the end of the season. I’d drag him back.”