Southampton: Derby’s Mason Mount reveals he rejected Saints when younger
By Chris Hughes
Highly-rated midfielder Mason Mount has revealed he rejected Southampton as a youth player as he has family ties with Portsmouth.
Currently on-loan at Derby, the youngster has been drawing plenty of attention for his positive performances with the Rams, scoring four times so far in just eight appearances in all competitions.
The 19-year-old played his first professional season last year on-loan at Vitesse, with the Dutch club regularly taking on Chelsea’s best young talents. In his one year in the Netherlands, he scored 14 goals in just 39 appearances.
However, the young English talent has this week revealed that he once rejected Southampton due to his family ties with Portsmouth – he supports the League One outfit and was also born there.
"‘It was tough to turn down Pompey. I was a massive fan, season-ticket holder and grew up watching them. Southampton wasn’t as tough! I went there and I had to wear the kit and just didn’t want to in training. No disrespect but I am a Pompey boy! I found it too hard wearing that kit.”"
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Mount has been tipped to become a future England midfielder and is already impressing with the Under-21’s – he scored the winner on Tuesday in a 2-1 victory over Latvia which Southampton stopper Angus Gunn watched from the subs bench.
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Working under Chelsea legend Frank Lampard, Mount is bound to take some serious leaps in development, especially with the Derby boss having played in the same position as the 19-year-old during his distinguished playing career.
However, Southampton fans will be kicking themselves that they failed to land the youngster before he turned professional, as Mount claimed that Chelsea were the only ‘big team’ to come in for him.
Granted, the Saints’ development of youth in recent seasons hasn’t been what it used to be – Matt Targett’s game time has been limited whilst Josh Sims, Sam McQueen and Harrison Reed have all been loaned out for the upcoming campaign.
However, Mount’s position and style of play are something the Saints are currently lacking – Stuart Armstrong is the only Southampton man who can naturally occupy the #10 spot. It’s for that reason that I listed the teenager in my summer wishlist, although it now seems unlikely he’ll ever put on Southampton red again…