Tony Mount ponders.
""I'm staying at Chelsea," the teenage Mount asserted, giving no consideration to his father's suggestion that he should, perhaps, take advantage of the interest several other top clubs were showing in him. In 1997 Club Manager Tony Mount had left unexpectedly, taking the core of his talented squad with him. "Mount was invited to join Boarhunt FC by the parent of another child at Soccer City. Mason Mount has revealed he rejected a move to Southampton as a youngster The 19-year-old explained he couldn't do it because of his Portsmouth roots He said: 'No disrespect but I am a Pompey boy! Among his group of 1999-born peers at Chelsea - which included Declan Rice, Reece James, Rhian Brewster and Eddie Nketiah - Mount's skill stood out, but his maturity truly set him apart. "I'll get in the team. June 1998 saw the two rivals join forces. I don't want to get him involved in all that.
After establishing himself as Vitesse's rampaging, goal-threatening midfield heartbeat, with 13 goals and 10 assists in all competitions, he was named in the Eredivisie Team of the Season.Regular visits to Fratton Park to watch his beloved Portsmouth with dad began at the age of four, and the aspiring midfielder would pay particularly close attention to the technique and decision making of Gary O'Neil and Argentine playmaker Andres D'Alessandro - a signed shirt from the latter hangs in his house to this day.One interested club held a clear advantage, though. "No-one at Chelsea's academy has got into the first team since John Terry," he pleaded. I'm not coming back.
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A move to Vitesse - whose relationship with Chelsea has seen them act as a sort of farm club for many of the Premier League side's young players - was agreed.A football man with decades' experience playing and managing at non-league level, Tony Mount appreciated the stellar footballing education his son had received at Chelsea's prolific, world-renowned youth academy. This meant Viveash was only able to select a handful of his own players for the match, but he had no hesitation in starting Mount.
When the time came to choose which club to commit to for the beginning of the under-nines season, the eight-year-old Mount and his parents discussed his options. Beaten by his bigger opponent, Mount left the cage, his eyes red and tear-filled, so frustrated was he by the loss.
Parents, grandfather, aunts and uncles were gathered in the kitchen as Mount's father, Tony, expressed his concerns.Mason Mount was adamant. But, understandably, he feared there was no pathway to the senior side for the youngest of his four children. "The boys are so good. At 17, he began to feature regularly for Chelsea's under-23s, and it was in one under-23 game, against Southampton at Cobham in November 2016, that he demonstrated his first-team credentials to those within the club whom it most concerned. He was just five years old when his dad first took him along to a training session for children aged six and above at Soccer City in Fareham. You’ve got to be aggressive and not be bullied about so I think that’s why he was tough with me in that sense.”“He always said: ‘You’re from Portsmouth, so you need to do that dirty side as well,’ so it’s always been inside me.FULL-TIME offers you an easy way to manage your football leagues online.“My dad always said to me growing up from young, you’ve got to do the other side of the game, you can’t always be good on the ball, you’ve got to get back, get involved and make tackles.“I just want to try and play football on the pitch and do the best I can.Get all the latest football news sent directly to your inboxAnd he says it all goes back to his days growing up on the pitches of Portsmouth, under the watchful eye of his dad, when he developed both aspects of his game today. "Mount was brought off the bench against Utrecht on 1 October with Vitesse 1-0 down.
Playing for the club he made his debut for Chelsea on 11 th August 2019. Mount's parents implored him to come home and ask Chelsea to find him another loan elsewhere. He was playing under-6 football in local leagues as a four-year-old and spent one day a week training in the academies of Portsmouth, Southampton and Chelsea. "The first thing you notice is that they're not afraid to give it him all the time. "If he hadn't learned to kick a ball," Tony Mount tells BBC Sport. Mason Tony Mount Biography: Mason Tony Mount is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Premier League club Chelsea and the England national team. ""Very small but bags of character and desire," Martin Taylor, who was a senior youth scout at Chelsea for 15 years, observed of Mount. "Dad, it's so tough at Chelsea," Mount said, putting his Portsmouth fandom to one side.