There are probably few occasions where it is appropriate to quote Oscar Wilde in an article about Chelsea Football Club, but if you indulge me just this once, one line stands out as prescient to the club's recent transfer mishaps.
In Lady Windemere’s Fan, one character utters a line which you may have heard repeated. In reference to another character, Lord Darlington refers to the individual as "a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". Few lines of dialogue can sum up the west London club's current, or more recent transfer policy than that.
The line also feels appropriate for the ongoing saga regarding Mason Mount. Cutting a distant and quite solemn figure amongst the welcome end to a miserable season a few weekends back at Stamford Bridge, Mount appears destined for an exit few envisaged.
Manchester United clearly want him, with several outlets going as far as to state the player has agreed personal terms with United. The quite important stumbling block for United will be persuading Chelsea to sell one of their biggest assets for a fee they deem appropriate.
Suggestions have cited figures such as €80million, just under £70million. For United, this is apparently too much for a player with only a year left on his current deal and not much sign he is close to signing another. That logic is not unreasonable but it is also understandable why Chelsea will want to extract as much money from one of their rivals for a prized asset. The question though amongst this alleged stance is, if Chelsea deem Mount worthy of that big a fee, why don't they deem him worthy of a bigger contract?
If the club is open to selling Mount given the impasse that contract negotiations have reached, then potentially pricing him out of the market does not appear coherent. Whilst those with very blue-tinted glasses will value Mount similarly, or even higher, are they willing to take the risk of him walking for free next summer? That appears a self-defeating move for the ownership, who by their own admission in a recent statement, aim to make the club sustainable.
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FFP relegations place an ever louder ticking clock before the June 30 deadline for Chelsea, who must sell players before then for those sales to be included in the financial accounts for 2022-23.
Selling homegrown talent accounts for a pure profit, a benefit to Mount's sale even if that purely simplifies a nuanced matter into a calculated financial one. Although a low fee for a player who contributed to the Champions League win of 2021, has won two of the last three Player of the Year awards and is an England international would feel insulting, this is the position Chelsea cannot ignore.
But it begs the question as to why Mount cannot be valued as highly as others when you consider how much expenditure has gone in for a vast transfer spend that has mostly underwhelmed. What is the cost-benefit analysis of over-paying on Mount's wages compared to what you would have to spend in the market to replace his talent?
Whilst the club's hierarchy might want to install a lower wage structure across the squad, the reality is that quality comes at a premium. Players like Mount are not going to stay on £90,000 a week when they can make more elsewhere, and they see comparable talent earning more at a similar age.
After taking off his Soccer Aid winner's medal on Sunday, Mauricio Pochettino will probably welcome the potential saving grace in all of this FFP noise the sudden investment of Saudi Arabia into their domestic league. Chelsea have already been impacted directly by the acquisition of N'Golo Kante by Al Ittihad, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
The spending is unlikely to stop, as it appears Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could be next out the door. A short-term addition that was only justified by the presence of Thomas Tuchel, who was of course dismissed the morning after the striker's debut. Aubameyang is one of several figures needing to be let go and Saudi could do Chelsea a favour by snapping up another famous name. Kalidou Koulibaly and Romelu Lukaku have also been linked, two older names who could extract the money Chelsea desire.
Relieving Chelsea's budget of those hefty wages only strengthens the argument of handing Mount a larger deal should the new ownership fear all of N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are on the move this summer.
The price of losing Mason Mount will cost Chelsea more than the value of handing him a new lucrative deal to retain his services.
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