The details of Mason Mount's first crucial contract meeting have been revealed with co-owner Todd Boehly sending the Chelsea star a clear message. The 24-year-old has been locked in negotiations over a new deal since just before the 2022 World Cup, although talks have been delayed on numerous occasions with Chelsea's priorities elsewhere.
Mount looked set to face a decisive six weeks in a Chelsea shirt following his return from injury against Real Madrid on April 12. However, the abdominal issue that has caused the England international to miss a significant amount of the last few months was continuing to bother him, with interim manager Frank Lampard revealing he was set to have a minor operation to fix the problem.
"Mason has been carrying this pelvic injury for quite a while, it pre-dates myself," Lampard revealed on Tuesday. "We've been trying and the medical staff have been trying but we've got to the stage now where he'll have a minor surgery. Probably a four-week recovery and we know where that gets us to."
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Playing again this season looks unlikely for Mount ahead of the proposed arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as the new Chelsea boss. The summer will also prove to be decisive for another number of Chelsea stars with a mass summer clear out expected at Stamford Bridge.
There is a chance that Mount is included in that with Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Arsenal both showing transfer interest, while the Cobham graduate is Liverpool's number one target for the summer, as football.london understands. However, positive steps look to have been taken with an in-person meeting taking place between Mount and Boehly last Friday regarding his future at the club.
In that meeting, the Evening Standard suggested that Boehly asked the midfielder to agree to a new one or two-year deal to buy Chelsea some more time to prepare a fresh contract offer and ward off interest from Premier League rivals and Bayern Munich.
The exact details of what was discussed and the feelings leaving the meeting now look to have been revealed by the Athletic's David Ornstein on FIVE podcast. He said: "There’s been no agreement on a new contract, talks have been parked until the summer and when I say talks I mean contract negotiations, so numbers, in and outs, terms and everything like that.
"But, you can still have a dialogue, you can still have conversations. On Friday of last week there was a conversation directly between Todd Boehly and Mason Mount personally. What was reiterated to Mount was how important he is to Chelsea and how much they would like to renew if they can. That’s their perspective, they came away from it with some positive feeling. That perhaps for the first time in a long time there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
"It is not a foregone conclusion they will get what they want especially when there is growing interest from the likes of Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal and from Thomas Tuchel, who is very fond of him, whether his club Bayern Munich are backing him on that we’ll have to wait and see. So it’s a massive decision for both parties."
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