Mason Mount appears to have fulfilled his wish to move to Manchester United. Photo: Getty Images/Justin Tallis
Chelsea must hope and pray they never see anything close to the £5m in raises that finally brought Mason Mount to Manchester United.
And anyone in blue who thinks Chelsea would be crazy to pay £250,000. – a week that could rise to £300,000 with the bonuses Mount would be earning at United might just want to remember Ashley Cole's infamous line.
Cole has been criticized for being wrote in his autobiography that he nearly swerved off the road when he heard that Arsenal were willing to offer him “only” £55,000 a week.
But he was worth every penny for Chelsea. , where he won eight trophies, including the Premier League title and the Champions League, and became a club legend in the blue shirt, having spent all his formative years in red.
Cole's sale helped usher in an era of relative mediocrity in « Arsenale, who stopped winning trophies around the same time the club stopped paying big money in wages. Chelsea should be wary of such a warning from recent history, when they made such a strong commitment to cut their payroll as well as the size of the team.
Should Chelsea ever receive this extra £5m in add-ons, Mount's departure would be not only a disgrace but a real disaster.
You can't put all the blame on the current regime as the owners who bought club from Roman Abramovich, inherited a situation in which Mount had two years of contract left, and he already began to feel undervalued.
But, crucially, the situation never improved as there were talks between co-owner Todd Boly and sporting director Paul Winstanley and things quickly fell apart to the point where Mount's future ended up being a business decision and Chelsea were unwilling to take the risk. . lose it for free next summer.
Selling a homegrown star to an opponent can never be considered good business, and for the add-ons to make it into the Chelsea bank account, Mount will not only have to play regularly for United, but also win regularly enough to at least raise one or two trophies in red. shirt. Even the thought of it will set the diehard Blues on edge.
Of course, Chelsea fans will be annoyed if Mateo Kovacic wins the Premier League title, or perhaps even the treble with Manchester City. cause some anger if Kai Havertz is part of an Arsenal team that can go overboard.
Once upon a time, Chelsea poached Arsenal talent in their prime… now it's the other way around. Photo: Getty Images/David Price
But Kovacic and Havertz were hired shotguns for Chelsea. They were not, as the Mount banner so beautifully puts it, a boy who had a dream, and that that dream ended with his best years ahead of him is an astounding setback for everyone involved.
The £55m flat fee Chelsea are guaranteed to receive from Mount's sale will not be compensatory if he helps resurrect United, and an extra £5m for a few trophies will feel like an all-powerful slap in the face.
Think of the hours, weeks, days and years spent developing Mount since he joined Chelsea at the age of six, and how he became the first academy graduate to take first place in the team since John Terry. .
Chelsea have developed a reputation for buying talent and selling their home-grown players, and the sale of Mount to United will raise new questions about how much the club truly values their own.
Why, for example, Chelsea were willing to pay Raheem Sterling over £300,000 a week and Kalidou Koulibaly not far behind but didn't want to offer Mount, who won two Player of the Year awards with the club, the same terms?
Just as Cole was initially accused of being greedy in a move to Chelsea, there will be those who refuse to believe that Mount's move to United was not motivated by money given that he would earn at least £78m if he stayed on the entire duration of their five years. A one-year deal that includes an option to extend for another 12 months.
Both sides will have a lot to say, but both camps seem to agree that contract talks between Chelsea and Mount have reached dead end. talks broke down more than once before the London club made a bizarre one-year extension offer in February. another 12 months to see if he's really worth the fact that United, Liverpool and Arsenal are in line to pay him should have learned from this saga.
You will it's hard to find anyone who used to work at Arsenal willing to admit they've decided Cole is worth no more than £55,000 a week and Mount's sale could be a topic no one ever takes responsibility for in ” Chelsea, especially if United ever write about it. Check for £5 million.
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