Thursday’s game between Manchester United and Chelsea doesn’t have a huge amount riding on it. For a game that should be between two sides battling for the title it’s remarkably low stakes. Both managers are fighting to show they should stay in the job. Apart from that, there’s not a huge amount to play for.
So journalists previewing the game have had to find a new angle, and that’s just what Rob Dawson at ESPN has done. He’s decided that Mason Mount returning to Stamford Bridge is the hook he will use, and he uncovered some very juicy information along the way.
First he confirms what we all know, but some choose to deny – leaving Chelsea was all to do with the club needing to raise money, nothing to do with Mount’s own volition. He was seen as a “much needed cash injection” and the club were apparently “inviting offers as early as December 2022.”
Things get even more painful – Jurgen Klopp was in contact with Mount just a month later, while Mikel Arteta was so convinced he was going to sign the midfielder than he “privately told his coaches that a transfer to the Emirates was a done deal.”
In the end of course those moves didn’t happen, and Mount ended up making a £60m move to Manchester that has been a bit of a disaster so far. He’s apparently very frustrated by the way the club’s PR has put the move on him, and will one day address the move… to ensure that supporters understand his side of the story.”
Those of us watching it develop could tell this was the reality right from the start. It’s nice to hear that those who doubted this was what was happening can now be set straight in their beliefs.
