Mason Mount sat in the Jimmy Armfield Lecture Theatre at St George’s Park sipping water in between questions with the relaxed demeanour of a 100-cap veteran.
The 20-year-old’s impressive ability to take everything in his stride has been honed during a whirlwind two-year spell which could continue with a senior England debut in Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria at Wembley.
A season on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in 2017-18 began without knowing a word of Dutch but ended with him being crowned the Eredivisie club’s player of the year.
The midfielder was a key component of Derby’s ultimately failed pursuit of promotion from the Championship last season under Frank Lampard but the pair returned to Chelsea this season to promising effect, with Mount rising above collective concerns to score twice in his opening four games.
Upon calling him up last week, Gareth Southgate described Mount as “one of the outstanding players in the league already this season”.
Mount’s calmness as he fielded questions stems in part from early exposure to Southgate’s set-up. Along with Phil Foden and Ryan Sessegnon, Mount was invited to train with the seniors for a week prior to last year’s World Cup in Russia before attending the Tunisia game with a sponsor.
Last October, he was part of the squad for the Nations League trips to Croatia and Spain. Mount was an unused substitute but he absorbed the lessons from two remarkable occasions as England played a behind-closed-doors match in Rijeka before a famous 3-2 win in a Seville downpour.
“I have very good memories of the Croatia game,” he said. “Playing in a stadium with no fans, it’s something you’re not really used to.
“And then the Spain game, which was a totally different feel. The stadium was packed out, the atmosphere was unbelievable so two totally different games.
“They were something that for me coming into the senior team for the first time that I learned so much off and gained so much experience from, so two very, very good games to come in and learn from.
“It’s all just happened so quickly for myself. I haven’t really had the time to look back at what’s happened so far.”
Mount was also part of the England Under-21 group containing individuals both Southgate and FA technical director Les Reed accused of being over-confident during their group stage exit at this summer’s European Championship in Italy.
However, Mount was exempt from that description and rightly so, evidenced by an incident last month in which several Chelsea academy players dined out for a meal only to learn upon asking for the bill that Mount had walked by, seen them eating and quietly told the restaurant it was on him.
Mount did so as he identified the financial struggle that often comes with trying to crack professional football, a humility that stems in part from the guidance of his father, Tony, who is likely to be highly emotional should the family dream become reality this weekend.
“You know how much they mean to me and how big a part my family have been in my career,” he said. “It’ll be a very proud moment for me and them.
“They’ll probably be a few tears if I make my debut. They’ve been a massive part of my career. Hopefully I can make my debut and they’ll be very proud.”
While Chelsea team-mate Tammy Abraham missed out on a place in Southgate’s squad, Mount has another friendly face around the place to help him settle in this week.
In fact, Declan Rice and Mount arrived in Burton together, continuing a close friendship that began when meeting in Chelsea’s academy 12 years ago.
Rice, who was released by the Blues aged 14, has three England caps to his name after making the controversial switch from representing the Republic of Ireland.
“We’ve always spoken about that opportunity of maybe playing with each other again,” said Mount, who is four days older than Rice.
“Playing with each other at Chelsea at that young age, it was something special between us, so we’ve always kept that hope of it maybe happening again.”
Rice snuck into the room to watch the end of Mount’s assured performance in front of the cameras. “I enjoyed that,” Rice said as he bounced off.
Lampard somewhere would have approved, too. Mount has previous relayed a story that when he was first named in the England squad last year, Lampard set him the long-term task of surpassing 100 caps and even his own tally of 106.
That journey is only just beginning, but Mount appears to be going the right way about it.
