BIG BEN CHIMES

BILLY MULLEY TALKS TO WATFORD DEFENDER BEN WILMOT ABOUT HIS RAPID RISE - AND HOW IT WAS AIDED BY A SPELL IN ITALY

- BILLY MULLEY

NOT many 21-year-olds are able to say they’ve already played in the Premier League, Championship, League Two and Serie A – but Ben Wilmot can.

The Watford and England U21 centre-back has risen through the ranks at an exponential rate. Only six years ago, he was playing for Hitchin Town Youth in the Royston Crow League and not even he imagined such a leap.

“As a 14-year-old, my aim was to make Hitchin Town’s first team before my 18th birthday,” he said. “So, to be an 18-year-old and signing for a club like Watford after playing League Two football for Stevenage was amazing.

“From the outside looking in, it looks like everything has just happened at once, but, for me, everything has happened at the rate that I want it to.