Harry Diamond
Mason Mount says Frank Lampard’s bridging of the gap between the club’s academy and first-team has made Chelsea feel ‘like a proper club’ since his arrival as manager.
The Chelsea manager has been widely praised since his arrival at Stamford Bridge this summer, the 41-year-old overseeing an impressive start to the campaign in which he has integrated several of the club’s best prospects into the senior set-up.
Amongst those has been midfielder Mount, the 20-year-old starring alongside the likes of Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham with all three having earned senior call-ups to the England side this season.
Mount admits Lampard’s ability to create a pathway to first-team football has made Chelsea feel like a ‘proper club’, revealing the club’s young stars have paid close attention to the development of the next emerging talents after making their own respective breakthroughs.
“Even before the [Palace] game we were looking at the Under-18s score against Tottenham, we were all talking about it and they were 4-0 up after 20-something minutes,” Mount told chelseafc.com.
Chelsea's four English starters today have an average age of 20.9 years:
🏴 Mason Mount
🏴 Fikayo Tomori
🏴 Tammy Abraham
🏴 Reece JamesLampard's Young Lions. 🦁 pic.twitter.com/5KYLGlfB6k
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) November 9, 2019
“We’re focused on our game, but we’re looking at all the Academy boys and what they’re doing because we were there not that long ago.
“We always stay in contact with everyone and it feels like a proper club. We’re so close together, all the boys in the Academy and our young players in the first team, it’s really solid.”
Mount has started each of Chelsea’s 12 Premier League fixtures so far this season and has scored four league goals, with the club having enjoyed an impressive start to the campaign that has seen them rise to third in the division ahead of the international break.
The midfielder admits the club have been pleased with their start so far, and added that the emergence of academy graduates into the first-team has given the club a core of players who understand Chelsea’s values.
“At the beginning of the season we knew what we had in the squad,” Mount added. “We knew the quality and that the young players would be coming through and trying to make the step up to be big players in the team.
“We knew we had the quality, so we always set goals of being up near the top of the table. That was always our target. We’re doing very well at the moment, getting that momentum going, and that’s all you can ask for really.
“It means so much to us young boys to come through and have the belief and support from all the fans.
“We give all we have to win the games and to be playing well, because we want to win games for the fans. To have them behind us gives us that extra boost in games, to keep going. We all have so much passion for the game and to play for Chelsea. We’ve been through the Academy, we know what it’s like to step up and have that passion throughout and that drive to want to play for the badge.”
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