Neil Jones has questioned whether Chelsea will be capable of securing £70m for Mason Mount this summer.
This comes amid serious interest from Liverpool, as has been supported by a report this morning from The Athletic, who are said to already be contemplating what kind of contract would entice the Englishman to forego his long-standing ties to Stamford Bridge.
“I definitely agree with James. £70m for a player with one year left on his deal,” the GOAL journalist exclusively revealed to Redmen TV in their Journo Insight show.
“A player who isn’t viewed by them as one of their top earners and one of their top players clearly.
“I don’t think that’s realistic for Chelsea. I think he’ll be a lot less than that if they were to sell him.”
The 24-year-old has suffered from a downturn in form of late, though that can perhaps be linked to the overall struggles of the squad – in none too dissimilar a manner to what is being experienced over on the red half of Merseyside – following a change in manager and an unrestricted spending spree.
The parallels to Steven Gerrard’s nearly-move to London in the 2004/05 season are there for all to see (though it’s worth emphasising that Mount isnt quite the player our ex-skipper was at his age), with us now having flipped the tables on Graham Potter’s men in a bid to land arguably their most popular midfielder.
Much in a similar vein, of course, the England international could very well decide to extend his stay at the Bridge in what would be an understandable decision to remain somewhere he’s called home since a young boy.
That being said, the opportunity to start afresh with a side in desperate need of new midfield operators, especially one that could soon boast world-class teenager Jude Bellingham in its ranks, could prove too tantalising to ignore.