It’s been an odd time for Chelsea’s Mason Mount over the past few months for one reason or another.
With contract negotiations seemingly at a standstill and the player not quite as important as he once was for the Blues, rumours of a switch elsewhere were inevitable.
Earlier in the week the player also decided to delete his Twitter account which appeared to come out of the blue, but Stan Collymore, writing in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, attempted to make sense of it all.
‘Are we really reading too much into Mason Mount deleting his Twitter? Possibly. I know that Liverpool have been sniffing around Mason and if you’re putting two and two together and making 22 rather than four, the suggestion could be that he’s going to sign for Liverpool, the deal is already done, and as and when he signs for Liverpool and it becomes fact on social media, Chelsea fans will have a pop at him,’ he wrote.
‘It’s his club and he’s been there a long, long, time. There were rumours that Todd Boehly wanted to give him a new contract but I think that going to Liverpool would be a step up. I think if Chelsea were above them in the table it would still be a step up because going to a club like Liverpool, Man United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and AC Milan – they’re once in a lifetime clubs. That’s no disrespect to what Chelsea have achieved.
‘I was up at Anfield yesterday as John Barnes had a mural unveiled. Walk around the corner and there’s one of Ian Callaghan, Jurgen Klopp, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Steven Gerrard and Phil Neal. The place is dripping with great British football history and it’s a persuasive argument for a young man who’s only known Chelsea to go up north to a former industrial city, a proper footballing city and to find out what it’s like.’
If, as seems likely at this point, that Mount does indeed up sticks from west London and seek a new adventure elsewhere, it’s likely he’ll have to prove himself all over again.
Will be still be confident enough to walk into a new dressing room and deliver?
Liverpool certainly play in a style that would suit his skill set. Jurgen Klopp’s penchant for front-foot, attacking football at pace is right up Mount’s alley and if he’s handed the responsibility of driving the Reds forward, there’s every reason to think Chelsea will be looking on wistfully at what might’ve been.
In fact, as Collymore suggested, interim manager, Frank Lampard, may have inadvertently helped Mount in making the next big decision of his career.
‘Frank Lampard interestingly may have swayed it in his favour, which might sound odd, but if Mount’s advisors say ‘he’s not signing a new contract’ and then he goes to Frank ‘what do you think?’…. don’t forget Frank Lampard went up to Man City late in his career and enjoyed that experience of being in a different place,’ he added.