Mateo Kovačić talking with Manchester City; Arsenal keeping tabs on Mason Mount — reports

Chelsea need to jettison around a dozen players this summer just to trim the first-team squad to manageable numbers, which means that a lot of familiar names and long-serving players might be on the chopping block.

Two of the more likely names are, as things stand currently, Mateo Kovačić and Mason Mount, both of whom will be entering the final 12 months of their contracts. And while we’re expected to hold another round of contract talks with the latter, we reportedly have no such plans with the former.

So unsurprisingly, Kovačić’s agents have been busy already, and have reportedly held talks with none other than Manchester City, who may be pulling the plug on Kalvin Phillips. According to reports out of the Balkans, Chelsea would be happy with a £30m transfer fee, which would be pretty good considering we got him for just about £10m more when his loan from Real Madrid was turned permanent in 2019. Kova has been a stalwart of our midfield for the past five years (200+ appearances) starting with that loan in 2018, and our Player of the Season in 2019-20, but he will be 29 in a few weeks and as such, probably not one for a long-term rebuild.

Mason Mount however is five years Kova’s junior, and considering that he’s one of our own, he surely might yet stay. He’s been linked heavily with Liverpool and Manchester United were said to be monitoring, but according to recent reports, Arsenal are also keeping tabs, and have held discussions over (“over”, not “with” — an important distinction) a potential approach.

That fact that the Premier League’s best teams are wanting the players we might not want should give us a bit of pause, but I guess if there is a vision, there is a vision. Let’s execute to it properly.