Manchester United have confirmed the signing of Mason Mount from Chelsea in a deal worth around £60million.
The Blues and Mount had been in negotiations for months over possibly extending his stay at Stamford Bridge with just a year left to run on his contract. However, an agreement could not be reached between the two parties and when Man United became seriously interested, Mount's head was turned.
The Red Devils are set to pay Chelsea £55m straight up with a possible £5m in add-ons at a later date. United have now confirmed the transfer.
Mount said: "It’s never easy leaving the club where you grew up, but Manchester United will provide an exciting new challenge for the next phase of my career. Having competed against them, I know just how strong a squad it is that I’m joining, and I can’t wait to be part of this group’s drive to win major trophies.
"Everyone can see that the club has made big steps forward under Erik ten Hag. Having met with the manager and discussed his plans, I couldn’t be more excited for the seasons ahead, and am ready for the hard work expected here.
"I am hugely ambitious; I know how amazing it feels to win major trophies and what it takes to do it. I will be giving everything to experience that again at Manchester United."
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Chelsea and Mount's talks: The background
A source told football.london that just before the FIFA World Cup that took place last year, Mount was optimistic an agreement could be reached. In fact, there was an understanding to see eye-to-eye on an agreement with Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, where imaging rights - which have proved to be a big obstacle in negotiations - were agreed on.
Chelsea and Mount finally looked as if they had compromised somewhat to extend the 24-year-old's stay at the club. The Blues were eager themselves once such a compromise was made with the player and his representatives.
Once the World Cup was over, with England going out at the quarter-final stage to France, meetings then started taking place again. But with a new-look transfer team, with the likes of Paul Winstanley, Joe Shields and Christopher Vivell in place, there was a slightly different structure to how the club were operating behind the scenes, with Boehly and Eghbali taking somewhat of a step back from the day-to-day stuff.
Mount and his entourage thought they were close to an agreement and extending the deal, but when he arrived back from the World Cup, the offer was no longer on the table. Things at this point looked dead, until the January transfer window came around and there was another big development.
On multiple occasions between the end of January and the start of February they wanted to extend Mount and see his salary increase. However, that was not of interest to the player, signing a one-year deal.
Boehly then held a meeting with Mount to discuss what is going on and just to check in on the player more than anything. However, no contract offer has been made since the prospect of extending his deal by a further 12 months.
When Graham Potter was sacked, Chelsea immediately began their search for a new permanent head coach. Julian Nagelsmann was an early front-runner, before talks with Mauricio Pochettino began. It was demanded by two managers, including Pochettino, that Mount needed to stay and he was part of their plans, so in that respect Chelsea were somewhat re-upping their efforts to keep the England international.
Popular player agent, Neil Fewings, was brought in to try and help improve the situation because Mount still wanted to stay at Chelsea. But no breakthrough was made. And now, the saga is over.
