Mason Mount has certainly set tongues wagging in recent days. Currently at the centre of a club vs country row after the Chelsea midfielder was withdrawn from the England squad with a pelvic injury, his future at Stamford Bridge also remains the subject of increasing speculation.
Out of contract in 2024, the 24-year-old has so far rejected offers of a new deal from the Londoners. Liverpool, Manchester United, and Newcastle United are also said to be monitoring his situation as a result, with reports suggesting Chelsea will cash in on Mount in the summer, having insisted they have made their last offer, rather than risk losing him on a Bosman transfer at the end of his contract.
And the midfielder has seemingly dropped the biggest hint yet that he is preparing for a Chelsea exit after appointing a new agent. The Daily Mail reports that, having been represented by his father, Tony Mount, for the past 18 months, he has now appointed Neil Fewings from ROOF as his new agent.
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Fewings should be a familiar name to Reds fans, and his appointment as Mount’s agent could have handed Liverpool an advantage in any potential pursuit for the midfielder in the summer.
Previously part of the Wasserman agency, Fewings joined ROOF last month. In doing so, he took a number of high-profile players with him, including Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk, and Harvey Elliott.
ROOF already represents the likes of Naby Keita and former Liverpool star Sadio Mane. Meanwhile, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Marko Grujic, Rhian Brewster, and Taiwo Awoniyi are other familiar names on their current roster of players.
But it is Fewings’ long-standing representation of Henderson and Van Dijk that could aid any Reds move for Mount. After all, it was certainly a contributing factor in the Dutchman moving to Anfield back in January 2018, with the Liverpool captain also playing a part in engineering the switch.
Joe would report back in 2019 how Henderson ‘kept on at (the club’s) recruitment (team) to do everything possible to secure Van Dijk.’ Meanwhile, the Dutchman himself has said on the record before how his now captain helped persuade him make the move to Anfield.
In an interview with ESPN in 2019 Van Dijk admitted that 'Liverpool's captain in particular was an "important factor" in choosing the Reds, due to the level of detail shared by Henderson on everything from the manager's relationship with his players to the mindset of those in the dressing room.’
"He painted the picture for me and made it easy to join,” he said.
Meanwhile in 2021, as Henderson celebrated 10 years at Anfield, Van Dijk again hinted at the midfielder’s role in his own move to Liverpool when speaking to the club.
"(I have) only positive and good words for him. I had a good relationship with him (before signing for Liverpool),” he said. “We were sharing the same agent before I joined the club so we were already in contact then and it helped me a lot to make the decision to come to the club as well, so big credit to him!"
Now Henderson already has a working relationship with Mount since the latter made his international debut in 2019. To date, they have played 14 times together for England and been in countless squads, helping the Three Lions reach the Euro 2020 final before suffering a quarter-final exit in last year’s World Cup.
Meanwhile, the Reds captain was quick to console the Chelsea man on the pitch at Wembley after his penalty miss saw Jurgen Klopp's side win the FA Cup last May.
Liverpool are in need of a midfield revamp, with vice-captain James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Keita all out of contract in the summer. Meanwhile, the likes of Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, and Fabinho aren’t getting younger. As a result, the Reds intend to strengthen their engine room in the summer with their would-be signings ultimately serving as long-term replacements for their captain and co.
Jude Bellingham, of course, remains the primary target, while interest in Wolves' Matheus Nunes is also understood to be genuine. But it’s understood that the club's recruitment team have identified an unspecified number of other potential players to try and lure to the AXA Training Centre this summer, however, due to the ongoing questions that remain over budget.
They will need more than one new midfielder regardless, with London sources insisting Mount is on that aforementioned longlist. Whether that is as a cut-price alternative to the Borussia Dortmund midfielder or as future team-mates, only time will tell.
Either way, Mount’s change of agent offers the biggest hint yet that he is preparing to leave Chelsea in the summer. With Fewings now in charge of his future, links with Liverpool will only increase.
And while the midfielder’s withdrawal from the England squad will prevent ‘Agent Hendo’ from working his magic in person, who is to say such informal discussions aren’t already taking place, if Reds interest is genuine, between both players behind the scenes? That was the case with Van Dijk all those years ago, after all.
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