In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Chelsea’s fight to keep Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho’s career-defining season and Saudi Arabia’s insane spending, plus much more.
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Man United could walk away from Mason Mount deal, and rightly so…
We know that Man United want Mason Mount and we know that Mason Mount wants Man United, but there is definitely a sticking point with Chelsea over the eventual transfer fee.
Chelsea have enough players on their books that they could just dig their heels in and keep hold of him for another year and then let him go for free next summer, obviously, that wouldn’t be ideal from a business perspective, but Todd Boehly is certainly not going to be in a rush to accept any offer just because of the player’s contractual situation.
From United’s perspective, I totally understand why they’re being cautious. You can see the approach they’re trying to take and the perceptions they’re trying to change. For too long United have overpaid for players. They’ve been taken advantage of by other clubs because they’re Man United. The club has now moved in a different direction and are trying to shake that reputation, so I completely back the idea of them setting a price, making an offer and then refusing to budge on it. If they cave to any crazy demand, which I think £65m for Mount is, they’ll continue to have the mickey taken out of them.
Will James Maddison thrive off the pressure or shrink?
Someone asked me recently – if Man United are happy to spend £50m on a midfielder and have identified an England international in his mid-20s as the ideal candidate then why don’t they go for James Maddison from Leicester City?
It’s a good question, but signing Maddison is a completely different prospect to signing Mount, and I think that’s why we’re seeing the likes of Spurs and Newcastle linked with him, and Man United and Liverpool linked with Mount – and that’s no disrespect to either of the former, but it’s telling of where the sides are in terms of their projects.
Newcastle are a club looking to build and take the next step, as are Spurs; so a player like Maddison, who has great credentials, such as being a senior England international, is an ideal target. However, when it comes to the possibility of him joining a high-pressured club like United or even Liverpool, nobody knows how he’s going to respond yet. Mount, on the other hand, despite being just 24 years old, has already proven he can make that step up. He has a Champions League winner’s medal to prove it.
Maddison will leave Leicester City as the biggest fish in a small pond, and if he went to Old Trafford, suddenly he’d be a very small fish in an ocean – would he rise to the occasion and thrive off the pressure, or would he shrink? – All you have to do for an example of what the latter looks like is look at Jadon Sancho.
Next season is huge for Jadon Sancho…
I love Sancho – I have always maintained that he could be the difference between United winning major silverware and not. But there is no denying that he has yet to live up to expectations following his transfer from Borussia Dortmund two years ago.
Fortunately for the winger, he has the biggest advantage on his side – time. He’s only just turned 23 so his prime years are still three, four, maybe even five, years away.
He also still has up to four years left on his contract at United, so the club are in no danger of losing him right now but we are fast approaching the time when the Englishman has got to turn it around. He did show glimpses of what he’s capable of at the end of last season, but Erik Ten Hag and the United-faithful will want to see more of that right from the get-go next season.
If I were his manager, I would give him another full season to really show what he can do before I am thinking about loans and transfers.
For Sancho, he has got to say to himself ‘I’m at one of the biggest clubs in the world, where would I go from here?’ – Because the answer is backwards. Based on what he’s done at United since he’s been there, he’s never going to a better club for a huge fee so if he’s serious about having a really successful career, he’s in the right place so go on and do it.
Saudi Pro League… We’ve been there, done that.
Saudi Arabia, as a nation, invests in so many good things so to see them walk the same path that others have been down so many times before is really disappointing. China tried to buy a league and make it instantly prestigious, as did America; but it’s never worked.
China, after spending huge sums on foreign players, later realised that if they’re going to have a league that really takes off and a country that becomes known for its football, they must do so from within first. Of course, the salary caps that subsequently followed didn’t help. America was exactly the same though.
Going back many, many years, America wanted to build a competitive league and they attempted it by signing Franz Beckenbauer, Pele and… Wait for it… Dave from Halifax Town.
They were unable to populate an entire league or even an entire team, so you’d have arguably the sport’s greatest-ever player playing alongside, and against, nobodies. Can Saudi afford to populate entire teams? – Yes, of course, but will they? – I’m not sure, and the reason I’m not sure is that ditching the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and bidding farewell to the Champions League in favour of just money leaves player’s sporting integrity in tatters, so they’re unlikely to have a route back in the future.
There are, and will continue, to be players who opt to go there, but I am far from convinced that players who are in their absolute prime, and at the top of their game, will. If the Saudi Pro League had poached a 2013 Cristiano Ronaldo or a 2010 Lionel Messi, then we would have a problem, but a 32-year-old Kalidou Koulibaly and a 32-year-old N’Golo Kante? – Come on now.
Will you tune into the Saudi Pro League next season just because those two, as well as the great Ruben Neves, have gone there?- Maybe you will, but I seriously doubt it.