Liverpool are reportedly showing a strong interest in the Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount ahead of the summer window, but he could still stay at Stamford Bridge.
Will Mason Mount leave Chelsea?
The future of the England midfielder is being speculated considerably ahead of the summer transfer window with his contract situation unclear.
It is believed talks over a potential new deal to extend his stay in west London have hit an impasse leaving him potentially open to a move in the summer.
And one of the club’s believed to be interested in possibly taking him away from Chelsea is Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool as they aim to bolster their midfield over the coming months.
The Merseysiders have already been hit with a summer transfer blow over recent days with reports issuing their fans a crushing blow in the race for Jude Bellingham.
Despite being one of the main teams in the pursuit of the midfielder, it is now believed the Reds have pulled out of the race with the finances involved too high for them to compete.
And speaking on the Chasing Green Arrow show, insider Dean Jones has issued his expectation for the £80k-per-week midfielder to remain at the Bridge:
(27:55) “I’m not convinced of that because I think he’ll, personally, end up staying at Chelsea. I don’t think the club can allow for something like that to happen.
“Things have already been bad enough they’ve made enough bad decisions in the last seven months that they can’t allow one of their homegrown players to go and join a rival. That’s just going to upset everybody.”
Should Liverpool go all out for Mount?
It has been a difficult season for both Chelsea and Liverpool compared to their usual high standards, and a player who has also struggled is Mount.
The 24-year-old has only been able to provide a mere three goals and two assists in the Premier League this season, which is massively down on his return of 11 goals and 10 assists last season.
Last season, Statman Dave took to Twitter to hail Mount as a “superstar” and he was certainly showing that type of form with over 4.5 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (via Fbref).
That figure has reduced dramatically this season with Mount offering a career-low 3.09 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes this term.
It is apparent there is clearly a very talented player in the England midfielder, however, it could be seen as a risk if Liverpool were to spend fairly significantly on Mount.
The majority of Mount’s success for the Blues has come from the attacking midfield role and it would be interesting to see if he could flourish in Klopp’s system.
Klopp has typically played with a 4-3-3 formation at Liverpool so it could leave potential question marks over whether Mount’s attacking nature could potentially be reined back across a flat three-man midfield.
Pep Guardiola ‘unicorn’ and Man City star invokes ‘Liverpool message’ in possible transfer hint
Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp have far more in common than meets the eye. For one thing, only the managers of Liverpool and Manchester City could claim to share an understanding of what it means to have consistently competed at the top of England and Europe over the past half-decade.
But it runs deeper than that. Tactically, the convergence between Klopp and Guardiola — once considered polar opposites — has been fascinating to watch. Arguably, the Catalan is now the most aggressive presser in the top echelons of the modern game, while his Liverpool counterpart has been on a long-term quest to improve his side’s in-possession play.
However, perhaps the biggest similarity is also the most overlooked. Whereas Klopp has rightly earned a reputation as a masterful man-manager at Liverpool, Guardiola has often been ignored or even criticized in this regard. Higher player turnover is equated with questionable squad management.
And yet, even when players want to leave Manchester City, it seems Guardiola has a way of keeping their output maximized. On one level, he and Sergio Agüero never seemed the most natural bedfellows, and yet the Argentine continued to be a key performer throughout his time under the former Barcelona boss. Bernardo Silva seemingly wants to leave every transfer window, but has been a thorn in opposition sides all the while.
Guardiola’s man management may not be the same as Klopp’s, but he usually finds a way of keeping his recruits effective, if not always happy. Yet it is the nature of Manchester City’s talent-hoarding that there will always be some relatively disgruntled world-class stars at any given time, and that inevitably leads to transfer rumors.
The latest whispers relate to Aymeric Laporte, who has found himself strangely ostracized this season. Once called ‘the best left-sided center-back for build-up play in the world’ by Guardiola, he has been limited to just six league starts all season, with only seven of his absences attributable to the knee injury that saw him miss the start of the campaign. Per Give Me Sport, he is ‘likely’ to leave.
Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onouha once called elite left-sided center-backs ‘unicorns in the game of football’, making the absence of Laporte even more baffling in some ways — although the rise of fellow left-sider Nathan Aké offers a degree of explanation. But it still seems like a major waste of talent.
The frustration does seem to be getting to Laporte. In a recent Instagram story (via ManchesterCity.news), he posted a not-especially-cryptic message. Translated, it reads as follows:
“After the rain, a rainbow; after a storm, the calm; and after an end, a new beginning.”
To Liverpool, this will sound at least quasi-familiar, with the words mirroring the lyrics to the club anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone. Of course, Laporte will not have been intending that meaning, but he does seem to be implying that he is currently going through the metaphorical storm.
To Liverpool, this will sound at least quasi-familiar, with the words mirroring the lyrics to the club anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone. Of course, Laporte will not have been intending that meaning, but he does seem to be implying that he is currently going through the metaphorical storm.
Perhaps that means he could be on the move in the summer, in search of his golden sky. Manchester City and Guardiola generally follow the line that anybody can leave if a sufficient transfer bid is made, and Laporte would surely not be short of suitors, especially given his ‘unicorn’ status.
Indeed, even Liverpool may be on the lookout for a left-footed center-back. Currently, Klopp goes without, relying on Virgil van Dijk’s exceptional qualities on the left side to compensate for the absence. But with the Dutchman’s form under the microscope, and with the future to think about in any case, Anfield may soon be in need of its own unicorn.
Of course, Laporte himself is a relatively unlikely target. Even James Milner’s transfer was controversial, and that was both on a free and before the rivalry had got going in earnest. Putting aside the Liverpool and Manchester City considerations, the Spaniard will also turn 29 next month, meaning FSG would be signing up for another Van Dijk dilemma in a year or two.
Still, if he is on the market, someone will be making an astute transfer. His bit-part role this season has been odd, but Guardiola may yet call upon him again before the season is up — and if history is anything to go by, he can probably count on a good performance. Manchester City, like Liverpool, has an astute man-manager at the helm, albeit of a different kind.