Mason Mount has three goals, 10 key passes and an assist in six games at Derby County. Meanwhile Chelsea have no technical director, no plan for youth, a love of sacking coaches and a record of shattered Academy dreams.
Mason Mount’s second season of first-team football will reignite the debate over whether the Eredivisie or the Championship is a more challenging loan destination for Chelsea’s top youth, and which should come first in the sequence. Is one harder than the other? Does the physicality of England’s second-tier give a player the resilience to play in Netherlands’ top level? Or does the Eredivisie’s emphasis on tactics and technique give young Blues a layer if finesse and intelligence that sets them apart in the Championship?
That’s all for another time. What is not under debate is how well Mason Mount is continuing his development at Derby County, thanks in significant amount to Frank Lampard. Chelsea should give Lampard and Mount free range for the next step of their respective developments, and let Lampard manage Mount’s future for the next 2-3 years.
For starters, Chelsea have no technical director. If they had one, he would be closely monitoring Mount’s development, talking frequently with Lampard and Jody Morris, and figuring out different combinations of the next best steps for Mount after this season. But again – and we can scarcely say this enough – Chelsea have no technical director 10 months after Michael Emenalo’s resignation.
Chelsea’s headless short-sightedness could be devastating for Mount’s development. On the one hand, they could shuffle him around on thoughtless loans for several seasons. He would lose the trajectory of his development and his attachment to the club. He would become a top transfer target, while Chelsea have become strangely unwilling to sell. Players are growing old in the loan army and, just as disturbing, Chelsea are consigning older players to the loan army.
On the other hand, Chelsea could bring Mount back to Stamford Bridge without a plan or a commitment to using him. This would make Mount the new Ruben Loftus-Cheek, an appellation that should terrify anyone who wants to see Academy-to-first team successes.
If Chelsea buy Mateo Kovacic from Real Madrid at the end of the season, the Croat will have that place in the squad locked down for at least two years. Ross Barkley may or may not stay and battle him. Mount would be well behind those two (or Barkley’s replacement) in the depth chart. Loftus-Cheek could still be around, serving as some form or backup and cautionary tale incarnate. Mount would go from 40 games a season to 20 at the exact moment he should be increasing to 50 games a season, including European competitions.
Within a few years, Maurizio Sarri or the next manager would look at Mount the same way Sarri looks at Loftus-Cheek: a 23-year old with a 19-year old’s level of experience. The solution? Buy a 24-year old.
The obvious solution is for Mount to stay at Derby County with Lampard for two full seasons. The best case scenario is Derby County win promotion to the Premier League, and the two No. 8’s learn to be Premier League manager and player together as Rams.
If Derby County do not promote and Lampard thinks Mount is ready to make the step up to first-tier football, Chelsea should defer to Lampard’s recommendations. If Lampard says Chelsea should find a Premier League loan for him, they should. If Lampard says Chelsea should loan Mount to Bundesliga or Serie A, they should. And whenever Lampard says Chelsea should bring Mount into the first team, they should do it when and how he tells them to.
Frank Lampard was rumoured to be a candidate to replace Emenalo. The technical director position almost seemed to suit Lampard better than manager. Just as the Derby County managerial job is a step on his path to coaching in the Premier League and then hopefully at Chelsea, he can get his feet wet with the strategic-level job by personally handling Mason Mount’s career path.
Mount has the advantage of such a mentor and advocate in Lampard. A young player could do so much worse, as most young players at Chelsea will attest from personal experience.
Chelsea should take themselves out of the equation as much as possible, at least until they hire someone who knows the job and can make the right choices. Someone like Frank Lampard, circa 2021.