Chelsea expect a new bid for Mason Mount from Manchester United next week
As per the Times (subscription required), Chelsea are expecting a second bid from Manchester United for star player Mason Mount next week.
A couple of days ago, Chelsea immediately rejected an opening offer of £40m from United. Evening Standard revealed that the Blues will hold out for up to £70m for the England international.
But, United are confident of negotiating a deal for a price lower than that. They think that the player’s contract situation at Chelsea (expiring next year) could contribute to this.
The other factor is that the Blues need to sell players and generate some funds before they can buy players. They also have to offload players to trim a heavily-bloated squad after hopelessly signing a lot of them in the last two transfer windows.
Although getting rid of Mount does not make sense, that ship has long sailed now. The 24-year-old could more or less become a United player in the coming days irrespective of what Chelsea hold out for.
Combining the player’s contract length and Chelsea’s urge to sell players, the more the days pass by in the transfer window, the easier it might get for United to negotiate a fee of their choice.
Are the Blues in any position to play hardball? We would not think so.
The hope is that the club makes the player sales happen quickly so that Mauricio Pochettino and his staff have enough time to identify the players they need and whether it is possible to get them in this window.
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Moreover, it is always a good practice to complete the signings before the pre-season starts. Doing deals once the season starts almost forces the new player to miss the first few games because he is still in the adaptation phase.