Mount turns down new Chelsea deal, or does he?
‘Mail Sport’ in the past few days have reported that Mount had rejected a new deal at his boyhood club Chelsea before flying out to the World Cup, with the offer to be within the region of £200,000 per week. However there has been a number of reports from reliable sources close to Chelsea suggesting that this is simply not true, one being Simon Phillips of ‘TalkChelsea’.
The initial breaking of the news angered majority of Chelsea fans with the Englishmen having a below par first half of the season not showing what what he had from previous seasons.
Mount currently earns £88,000 a week as part of the five year contract which he signed in 2019. A potential reason for the Englishmen turning down the proposed deal (if reports are to be true) is what the rest of the Chelsea squad currently earn, with Chelsea forward Kai Havertz earning double in which some may argue Mount is a more important player than his German team mate.
Mount’s time at Chelsea… so far
The 2019/20 season was his breakout season and under Frank Lampard he couldn’t have had a better mentor to bring him into the team. Lampard was a massive fan of him after having him the previous season in the Championship for Derby. For his first season in the Chelsea first team Mount played on 53 occasions in all competitions providing 8 goals and 6 assists.
The next season saw Lampard sacked in January after a poor run of results and in came Thomas Tuchel. Many people thought this would be the end of Mount’s dominance in the starting eleven after being deemed Lampard’s ‘favourite’ so with his sacking many thought they’d see less of Mount. However this wasn’t the case and against all the odds Tuchel led Chelsea to the Champions League final beating Manchester City with Mount providing the match winning assist for Havertz.
Not bad for Lampard’s ‘favourite’, who ended the 2020/21 season with 9 goals and 9 assists in 54 appearances and also Chelsea’s player of the season award.
Mount added another two medals to his collection in 2021/22 with the Super Cup and Club World Cup, it could have even been four if it wasn’t for Liverpool beating Chelsea in both the Carabao Cup and Fa Cup with both via penalties. Another player of the season award for Mount as his numbers continued to increase with 13 goals and 16 assists in 53 appearances in all competitions.
This season and England
But as for the current 2022/23 the talk has increased with many fans of Chelsea but also people from other teams question Mount’s role and importance in both the Chelsea and England squad.
His number have dropped off this season, only providing 2 goals and 6 assists in 21 games. He has had to get used to a different style of play with the sacking of Tuchel in September who was replaced by Graham Potter but as would the rest of the team who would have to adapt to a new system.
As of writing England have beaten Iran 6-2 and drawn 0-0 with USA so far in the World Cup, Mount started both. Obviously the more positive game in Iran which Mount starred in being a key component in a fluid England side.
However typical of England fans one bad result and opinions change drastically. The USA game was very uninspiring from everyone involved with England as a whole failing to create any promising attacking situations. Many fans turning to the Chelsea man to aim their criticism who didn’t have his best game by all means but then again none of the England side could say they had a great game, apart from Harry Maguire.
Phil Foden, multiple Premier League winner, looked the obvious replacement for Mount but Gareth Southgate opted not to make the change potentially as he sees him as a reliable player in his side who isn’t afraid of getting stuck in especially in a scrappy affair which it was in Qatar. However how Southgate has set up his England side it would be wiser to play Foden as part of the front three, where he operates for Manchester City instead of the midfield three which is Mount’s preferred position.
Offensively this season Foden has been much the superior to Mount, by having a better shots to game ratio (1.9 to Mount’s 1.6) as well as key passes per game (1.5 to Mount’s 1.3) but Mount makes more dribbles per game (0.8 to Foden’s 0.7) and is fouled more as a result (1.3 to Foden’s 0.9). Southgate seems to go for a more all action midfielder which would suggest why he prefers Mount who provides the defensive work rate also, he has a superior tackles per game (1.7 to Foden’s 0.7) and also has more blocks per game (0.3 to 0.1).
Stats according to whoscored.com
It will be interesting to see who Southgate selects for the final group game against Wales, will it be Mount or Foden or even both?
