With Mason Mount likely out until the end of the season, the prospect of the Cobham product having already played his last game for Chelsea has arisen. The Blues midfielder has just over a year remaining on his contract, with Liverpool interested in making a move for the England international, and negotiations seemingly at an impasse.
Frank Lampard had little opportunity to rely upon the 24-year-old following his return to the club in a caretaker position. The Chelsea legend's first stint at the club coincided with the emergence of Mount as a Premier League star, and outside of a small chance the Cobham product will return in time for the final game of the season, will not be able to select him before he departs the club to be replaced by a permanent head coach.
Mount has carried a pelvic issue with him in recent weeks as he's appeared from the bench, but the decision has now been made for the ace to undergo surgery. Likewise, Reece James played through an injury against Los Blancos and is now set to sit out the remainder of 2022/23, signalling that the Champions League clash has been seen as make or break for the Blues season.
The duo's contributions in that game were appreciated by Lampard, and the caretaker manager hopes to see that desire for more of his squad to reach the top at Chelsea.
He said: "I did appreciate it as it is important you have players who want to go that extra mile. Knowing them as lads, I am not surprised. Reece also was possibly the best player on the pitch with a dodgy hamstring so it shows what level of player he is. With Reece, we’ve got to try and find a way of using all that capacity that he has got and make him available more because he is a top player in my opinion. Mason has been the same, he has played through this because he wants to contribute to this club and they are players that really want to contribute to Chelsea and what it is all about. That’s the desire you need and without it, you can’t be a top player at Chelsea. Those two are the epitome of that."
James and Mount have worked their way through Chelsea's academy system to reach the first team and perhaps understand the club better than most. Lampard believes his players must find that motivation internally, however.
He added: "I don’t think it is about loving Chelsea, necessarily. It is about having pride in what you do. It is about playing football and understanding it takes the basics of real motivation and desire before you even get to the finer details of it. I think it should be a prerequisite for players in a team that wants to be a top team in the Premier League."
Lampard would not be drawn on whether Mount had played his final match for the west London club and acknowledged that conversations were still ongoing over a deal between the player and the club.
He said: “I don’t know the answer to that, it’s a conversation between Mason and the club, so I don’t know. It’s not final at this point and we’ll have to see because those conversations are ongoing. It’s a shame for me personally because I think everyone knows how I feel about working with Mason and I like to think he feels the same about me and we could have done with him in the games we’ve played already this season. But the bigger picture is something that’s going to become clearer in the next weeks and months, and that will be the club and Mason together having conversations.”
The Blues boss has never been shy in conveying his opinion about Mount, and still believes there is more to come from Chelsea's two-time player of the season. The 44-year-old manager believes Mount's quality will shine through, despite an indifferent season, regardless of whether he plies his trade in the future.
“I absolutely do," said Lampard, "I think form for a young player, people can analyse and question form, but you can very quickly forget the consistency that Mason’s shown in the period since he’d broken through. I’ve been a big part of that, in the beginning, and he carried on after I left, for his country as well. Then you forget how young he is because he’s so mature as a player that all his managers have trusted him so much.
"So I think if there was a drop in form, it’s more than understandable and I think every player has it, especially in the developing years. But there’s no doubt Mason is a top-class player and what he brings the team in and out of possession. Form will always waver slightly but the top players manage to gain great consistency and he’s been Chelsea Player of the Year in a couple of seasons with a lot of top players around him…people think it’s easy to play with top players around you. It’s not easy and he’s managed to do that.”
While Mount's future is yet to be resolved, Lampard will see his time at Chelsea end following the final game of the season against Newcastle. Mauricio Pochettino is currently favoured to succeed him, with the former Spurs coach hinting at yet another managerial change and Lampard needing to once again find a new job.
Having parted ways with Christian Stellini, Tottenham move onto their third different person leading the Lilywhites this season while Chelsea are on their fourth. Lampard himself is on his second job of the season having been sacked by Everton earlier this year and admits it was an easier position to face the second time.
The former New York City star admitted that Antonio Conte's notion of sleeping with a suitcase next to his bed sums up the managerial landscape: “Yeah, that sums it up. He stayed in a hotel when he was in London! I don’t have a suitcase by my bed, but maybe at Everton I did! I don't know.”
However, he's not been put off yet.
“The landscape has changed and, this is generally, we’ve lost maybe sight of alignment sometimes, maybe expectation sometimes, or reasonable expectation," said Lampard.
"Some of it has been fast-tracked with social media and this open world - like politics, you either hate something or you love it, you’re not allowed to be somewhere in between and it feeds into football. You’re winning games, ok we love you, but if not, ok we hate you and there’s pressure. There are a lot of things that link into that.
"In terms of me, you say I've been sacked twice and I was fortunate enough to have a career where I never had to have that feeling too much. I got released by Chelsea but I was 34, 35. Pretty much every manager will get let go at some point and once it’s happened once or twice, it feels a little bit softer than the first time. That’s a reality and it will only feel that bit softer if you give everything you can in the circumstances you’ve got. It’s making sure you get the balance right of what’s a reasonable expectation and what isn't and that’s not just talking about Chelsea.”
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