M
ason Mount was 14
when his father
told him to leave
Chelsea. His
reasoning seemed
sound enough –
young players, he explained, do not
get a chance at the club.
Tony Mount told academy
manager Neil Bath, too, expressing
his doubts about the pathway that
was being promised, and he also
spoke to other interested clubs
without Mason’s knowledge to see
what his options might be.
Manchester United had already
taken an interest after scouts
working for the club spotted
Mount playing football while on a
family holiday in Egypt. But when
Tony laid it on the line to Mason,
telling him that no academy
graduate had made it into the first
team since John Terry and that he
would be “silly” to stay, the
teenager’s response was emphatic.
“Mason just said, ‘Well, I’ll be
the next one’,” said Tony. “He was
absolutely adamant he wasn’t
going to leave and that he could
make it.”
Mount grew up as a Portsmouth
fan and particularly took a shine to
Argentine midfielder Andres
D’Alessandro, whose signed shirt
he had framed and has still got.
Portsmouth offered Mount a place
in their academy when he was
eight, but he opted for Chelsea,
with whom he had been training
from the age of six. At one stage,
Tony was driving his son to
Cobham for Saturday-morning
training and then back to Fratton
Park to watch D’Alessandro and his
team-mates in the afternoon.
Tony most likely still had his
doubts about his son’s hopes of a
first-team chance until about two
months ago, when the stars started
to align for Mount and Chelsea’s
other talented youngsters.
Chelsea chose not to try to get
their transfer ban frozen and Frank
Lampard succeeded Maurizio Sarri
as head coach. All of a sudden the
path opened up for Mount.
If history is anything to go by,
then Mount should be backed to
grasp his chance as he has a habit
of making an early impression. He
was aged just five, and playing in
his first mini-football tournamentDefying dad
paid off for
Chelsea’s
wonderkid
in Fareham – and for the first time
on grass – when Chelsea scout Rob
Winzar spotted him and invited
him to train at the club.
Winzar had been working for
Chelsea for only three months and
already knew Tony from their days
in non-League football.
“I got lucky, really,” said Winzar,- “I went and had a chat with
Tony and he said his lad was
playing, so I had a look at him and
there was Mason and Luke
McCormick, who is also still at
Chelsea, playing in the same team.
“I’ve still got my notes from the
tournament and all I’d written
from watching Mason was ‘follow
up’. That’s all I needed because
straight away he stood out. Not so
much because of his skill or
technique, but his aggression, not
in a physical way, to get the ball
back and run with it.
“He’s the best one I’ve seen in 15
years of scouting for Chelsea and I
saw Mason in my first year, in one
of my first-ever scouting trips for
the club. I still haven’t seen a
player as good as him at that age.”
Tony, a former non-League
player and manager, was initially
reluctant but eventually allowed
his son to train with Chelsea once
he had turned six. He progressed
through the age groups and later
signed a scholarship after ignoring
his father’s advice to leave.
Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole
would, on occasion, train with
Chelsea’s star-struck academy
youngsters, while Mount also took
a shine to David Luiz, with whom
he had a picture taken.
Luiz posted the photo of himself
alongside Mount, when he was an
academy player, on social media
next to an image of them together
on Chelsea’s pre-season tour of
Japan this summer, with the
caption “life is great”.
Now team-mates, Mount and
Luiz have developed a “bromance’
that has helped the 20-year-old to
quickly settle into the first-team
squad, but he had already proved
he can step out of his comfort zone
and into new environments.
Aged 18 and on the back of an
excellent season playing for
Chelsea Under-23s, Mount could
have stayed put and enjoyed
another comfortable campaign
surrounded by familiar faces and
some of his close friends. But he
chose instead to go on loan to
Vitesse Arnhem, where he scored
with his first touch after stepping
off the substitutes’ bench against
FC Utrecht in October, before
again demonstrating his
determination during the
Eredivisie winter break.
“Mason hadn’t played too much
because he had missed pre-season
after being away with England
Under-19s,” said Tony. “He had
about 10 days off over Christmas
and I said we’d talk to Chelsea
about sorting him out another loan
where he might play more. But
Mason said no and told me that heIn the fifth part
of our series
profiling the
Premier League’s
top young talents,
Matt Law charts
the rise of Mason
Mount – a player
who is ready to
follow the greats
at Stamford Bridge
Sport Football
If the shirt fits: Mason Mount is back at
Chelsea this season and hopes to
make an impact with the fans (below)‘Mason said he
would be “the
next one”. He
was adamant he
wasn’t going to
leave Chelsea
and that he
could make it’
wanted to stay and prove himself.
He wouldn’t leave. I was really
proud of how he adapted, never
complained and turned it around.”
Mount scored on his first
appearance after the break against
Sparta Rotterdam and never
looked back, as he held down a
starting place and performed so
well that he won the player-of-the-
year award. Technical director
Marc van Hintum even claimed the
youngster was the best player in
the Eredivisie.
“We have been able to enjoy a
great talent,” said Van Hintum. “At
Ajax, there are no better players in
the midfield. No, not [Hakim]
Ziyech either. Mason has
everything: work-rate, stamina,
tactical ingenuity, technique,
depth and dynamics. He can put
pressure on and has scoring ability.
He can even head. He has the right
mentality and he is intelligent. All
conditions for a top career.”
Other than impressing on the
pitch in Holland, Mount grew up
off it as he spent a year on his own6 *** Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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