This is a week of surprises for the football lovers and audiences’ one after the other. The first one came as the most speculated removal of Frank Lampard from his managerial job and appointment of Thomas Tuchel as new head coach for Chelsea. The other one came as Mason Mount captained the Chelsea side on their 3-1 win versus Luton Town in the FA Cup last Sunday.
With the regular captain Cesar Azpilicueta and vice-captain Jorginho both among the substitutes for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round win over Championship side Luton Town, Mount got the chance to captain the side for the first time.
‘It doesn’t change. Every single time I put that shirt on I still has that immense pride, the desire to want to do well, to succeed and to win. Every single time I put that shirt on, ever since I joined the club at six years old, that’s how I’ve felt and I don’t think that will ever change,’ he said as per the Official Chelsea Website.
‘That’s always been my mentality and that’s the mentality of the boys that when I look left and right I can see on the pitch. I feel like everybody should be like that and we strive for greatness.’
For someone who has spent his whole career with Chelsea and risen through the ranks of our Academy, it was an emotional occasion for the midfielder. It is being a proud moment for friends and family to watch him as the captain of Chelsea. It was the pride moment to put the captain’s armband for which he had devoted his all life.
‘As young players I feel like we’ve definitely stepped up, especially last season as well, and gained a lot of experience,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t really categorize some of the boys as young players anymore because some of us are coming up to 100 Premier League appearances or appearances for the club and many of the boys have played international football.
‘So we have a lot of experience within the group even though some of us are quite young still. As players we learn a lot from the experienced boys, that’s definitely something that we keep getting better and better at. Hopefully, we’ll keep getting the performances to the standard that we should be at and that we expect from ourselves. That’s definitely our goal now.’
Being an emotional moment, it was the moment to express as well for Mount, as a leader for the team. Mount has shown his capabilities and genius leadership skills in the team’s 3-1 win over the Championship side Luton Town.
It will be interesting to see how his game time will be affected not only under the coming manager, Thomas Tuchel but also for parting manager Frank Lampard under whom Mount had seen a meteoric rise in his football career.
