Mason Mount wants to add Old Guard accountability to Chelsea

Mason Mount grew up watching the Chelsea Old Guard, and he wants to add some of the qualities displayed by those legends to this current Chelsea squad, including the idea of the players holding each other accountable for their individual performances.

“We need to have that in the group where if someone doesn’t score or makes a mistake, we can tell them. Chelsea teams in the past had that in their group and we need the same in our group. If we do, we’ll have a top chance of winning trophies.”

It’s the sort of drive, leadership, and self-starting motivation that consistent winners tend to exhibit, and not just in individual sports. That’s not to say that players should be berating each other for every mistake, but they certainly shouldn’t coddle each other either. No one should be afraid to hold their hand up and take responsibility.

Finding the right balance of positive and negative reinforcement may not be simple, but there seem to be plenty of strong characters in the dressing room these days that we should be able to figure it out.

Case in point, the Newcastle match over the weekend, which featured several wasted opportunities from Chelsea. They may not have come back to haunt us, but that won’t always be the case.

“I said to Timo in the first half, ‘that’s a goal for you, you need to score them’ because I’ve seen them go in day-in and day-out in training. He’s a top player and he needs to be harsh on himself to score those. He knows that and, if it comes next week, he’ll put it away.

“I was disappointed with my one as well because I feel I should be scoring those. We’re all tough on each other and tough on ourselves because we want to be pushing to get number one.”

It also helps that Chelsea are growing in confidence and thus can handle the whole truth and nothing but the truth when it’s needed.

We’re not the final product just yet, far from it, but we’re on the right track.

“With the way we’re playing at the moment, we can come to these places [like St James’ Park] and feel confident in getting the result, whereas last season maybe we didn’t have that confidence.

“We’re building momentum but we can’t get too carried away. We just need to keep focusing on winning games, scoring goals and trying to keep as many clean sheets as we can.”

-Mason Mount; source: Chelsea FC

Mason’s also building his leadership credentials right in front of our eyes. Ya love to see it!

Oh, and he’s also got a mural now, right outside of Stamford Bridge. It may be a FIFA 21 ad, but again, you just love to see it!