Manchester United was always Mason Mount’s priority when it came to leaving Chelsea in last summer’s transfer window, according to transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano.
The England international came to the final year of his Chelsea contract and looked likely to be on the move from Stamford Bridge, with Romano explaining that both Arsenal and Liverpool had contacts to explore this deal last April.
However, speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his latest Daily Briefing column, Romano played down talk from elsewhere about Arsenal at one point feeling very confident that a deal for Mount was all but done.
Romano seems confident that Man Utd were always Mount’s first choice, so it remains to be seen if the links with Arsenal have been exaggerated slightly.
Mount transfer: Manchester United were always the former Chelsea star’s priority
“Finally, there was also an interesting United story involving Mason Mount, with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta alleged to have told confidants that the Gunners were very close to signing Mount from Chelsea,” Romano wrote.
“My understanding is that there were contacts with both Arsenal and Liverpool while his situation remained uncertain at Chelsea, but this was not in the summer, it was around April when clubs started to ask about Mount deal conditions. That’s it, but Man United was always the priority for the player.”
Mount hasn’t had the best of starts to life at Old Trafford, so perhaps it’s not too surprising that we’re seeing speculation of this nature.
The 25-year-old also didn’t have the best end to his spell at Chelsea, but it makes sense that there was plenty of interest in him from the Premier League’s biggest names, as he can be one of the top players in the country on his day.
MUFC will now just have to hope Mount can show that form again once he’s back from injury.