‘In a dark situation now’ – Jason Cundy worried as Chelsea have another Mason Mount situation at Stamford Bridge

This week, the Football Writers’ Association announced that Manchester City defender Ruben Dias had won ‘Footballer of the Year’. The first defender to win since Liverpool’s Steve Nicol in 1989, Dias beat off challenges from Tottenham’s Harry Kane and City’s Kevin De Bruyne. Nine City players accounted for over 50% of the votes cast.

I know City are champions, but that sounds myopic even by my one-eyed standards! And if proof were needed, my vote went to Chelsea’s Mason Mount. Biased? Absolutely. To no avail? Clearly.

While my views are obviously blue tinted, I genuinely believed that Mason Mount was worth my vote and in mitigation, I have watched every minute of his season at Chelsea and as I write and broadcast exclusively on Chelsea, I was perhaps better positioned to lend Mount my vote and less so with Ruben Dias or any other worthy contender.
I was perhaps better positioned to lend Mount my vote and less so with Ruben Dias or any other worthy contender.

To prove that I’m not completely biased, I voted for Jordan Henderson in last years FWA ‘Footballer of the Year’.

Of course, I also voted for Mount as Chelsea’s ‘Player of the Year’. Being a knowledgeable bunch, Chelsea supporters joined me in voting for Mount and it was announced this week that he had won the award to become Chelsea’s 54th Player of the Year.

Surprisingly, Mount, at 22 years is not the youngest recipient of the Chelsea Player of the Year award. The youngest being Gary Locke and Ray Wilkins in 1974 and 1976 aged 20 and Tommy Langley 21 in 1979, Mike Fillery 21 in 1982, Pat Nevin 21 in 1984, Frank Sinclair 21 in 1993, John Terry 21 in 2001.

In my experience, Mason Mount has been a favourite of match going supporters since he returned to Stamford Bridge after his loan spell at Derby County. The abuse of Mount and the imbecilic comments about his ability or lack thereof seem, thankfully, to be confined to social media. Perhaps Mount winning the award reflects the fact that votes for Chelsea’s Player of the Year through their website are weighted, with votes from Season Ticket holders and Members worth more.

As a result, he was the clear winner receiving the vast majority of the votes cast. If you have eyes, then Mount winning the award is thoroughly deserved.

This season, only his second full season at Chelsea, he has played more minutes and matches than any other member of Chelsea’s squad.

To date he has 6 Premier League goals, 1 FA Cup goal and 2 goals in the Champions’ league; 9 in total. Add to this, 6 assists in the Premier League, and one each in the Champions’ League and League Cup; 8 in total.

Mount himself would admit, as he often does, that he needs to score more goals and no doubt he will continue to work hard to improve his tally going forward.

He is becoming a scorer of important goals in big games for Chelsea such as his superb turn and shot to score in the quarter-finals of the Champions’ League against Porto, becoming the youngest Chelsea player to score in the knockout round of the competition in the process. He scored his second in the all important second leg of the semi-final against Real Madrid that all but secured Chelsea progress to their third final.

He scored the first goal at home to West Brom to start the fightback for a 3-3 draw back in September, the winner against Fulham in January, the equaliser in the 1-1 draw against Southampton in February and a great winner against Liverpool in April. His assist for Callum Hudson-Odoi against Rennes was sublime, surpassed only by his one touch and pass for Kai Havertz’s goal against Fulham early in May.

Mount has not only carried on where he started last season, but has upped his game throughout the season and taken it to the next level. The fact that he has done this in a typically unsettling season at Chelsea, with the firing of his idol and mentor Frank Lampard is laudable.

Many youngsters would have been badly affected by Lampard’s departure and then being dropped by new manager, Thomas Tuchel, in his first match in charge against Wolves. However, a bristling Mount came on after 60 minutes of the drab 0-0 draw and was clearly the best player on the pitch. If Tuchel needed to know how important Mount is to Chelsea, the youngster left him in no doubt.

The fact that Mount has become, along with perhaps only N’Golo Kante and Captain Cesar Azpilicueta, one of the few untouchables in the squad speaks volumes for a player who, in truth, is only at the start of his Chelsea career.

It also speaks of a tough mentality to go with his great technical skill and natural ability. I spoke to Jason Cundy, presenter at TalkSport and Chelsea TV and a former Chelsea player recently and he agrees: “I think he appears to be very strong. He’s a tough little thing as well. He’s not the biggest lad in the world, but physically he doesn’t let anyone impose themselves on him. He challenges, gets a dig in now and again, but, technically, he’s just a lovely player watch.”

“I love it when he’s playing, it gives us something different with his energy. The energy that he has got is infectious. And he drives the side forward, he starts so many presses. So often he is the catalyst for the press. When he’s on the ball, he has a lovely composure about him. He’s got goals in him. He’s got assists; he’s got free kicks; I mean what’s not to love and he’s still in the infancy of his Chelsea career.”

Given Mount’s close association with Frank Lampard in their relationship as player and manager and the fact that Mount plays in midfield where Lampard performed as arguably Chelsea’s greatest ever player; comparisons are inevitable.

Having watched Lampard’s entire career at Chelsea I would say that Mason Mount is already a better player than Lampard was when he arrived at Chelsea as a 23 year old in 2001.

The comparative stats make for interesting reading.

In Lampard’s first season with Chelsea, he played 53 matches with 7 goals and 2 assists. In that season he struggled to assert himself in midfield and looked a little bit out of his depth. The turning point was the 2002 FA Cup final against Arsenal where he subdued Arsenal’s indomitable Patrick Viera even though Chelsea lost 2-0.

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