Mason Mount looks set to earn another senior England call later this week and he won’t be the only Chelsea youngster in Gareth Southgate’s long-term plans. Mount’s early-season performances for Frank Lampard’s Blues look certain to be enough for Southgate, who is a confirmed fan of the 20-year-old anyway and called him up for the first time last year.
The England head coach watched Mount closely while he was on loan at Derby County last season and included him for the conclusion of England’s Nations League qualifying programme last October, although he didn’t get on the field to earn a cap.
But he saw plenty of the youngster in training to suggest that it was only a matter of time before the Portsmouth-born starlet was ready to make the step up to international level.
Mount has now blossomed into the player everyone at Stamford Bridge hoped he would become and, at a time when England have been crying out for a number 10, looks set to compete with Leicester City’s James Maddison for that spot in the medium term.
Mason Mount vs Norwich
1 goal
38 passes
84% pass accuracy
5 shots
2 key passes
2 dribbles won
2 tackles won
Little genius. Pure joy to watch. pic.twitter.com/dqSy2QYl4l
— FootballTalentScout (@FTalentScout) August 24, 2019
But Mount is unlikely to be the only Chelsea academy product to catch Southgate’s eye before next summer’s Euro 2020 finals with right-back Reece James tipped to also be knocking on the door for inclusion by Lampard before too long.
Competition at right-back for England has been intense over the past few years with Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker the main men until the emergence of Trent Alexander-Arnold recently.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka also looks like an England right-back of the future so James will have to make a pretty impressive case if he is to get into the senior squad and a spell in the Under-21s first looks a lot more likely.
But, together with Mount, Tammy Abraham and the already-capped duo of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, James could form part of Southgate’s long-term vision for the next World Cup with the Chelsea youth set-up potentially responsible for over a quarter of the players earmarked for Qatar 2022.
