Chelsea made a ‘mistake’ selling Mason Mount to Premier League rivals Manchester United, according to Graeme Souness.
After United and Chelsea reached an agreement on a £60 million transfer fee for the England midfielder, Mount signed a five-year deal at Old Trafford.
The 24-year-old helped the Blues win the Champions League two years ago and featured in 195 appearances for Chelsea after making his first-team debut in 2019.
Souness is a fan of the summer acquisition by Manchester United and thinks he will ‘only become better’ after leaving Stamford Bridge.
‘I think it was a mistake to let Mason Mount go – whether it’s to one of Chelsea’s biggest rivals or not,’ Souness told the Sky Bet Fan Hope Survey.
‘I like Mason Mount, given his age and history with Chelsea given he’s been there since he was a young boy, and his qualities – he’s only going to get better.’
Mount leaves a Chelsea team who finished just 12th in the Premier League last season under three different managers.
The Blues will hope to climb up the table under new boss Mauricio Pochettino but Souness says the Argentine faces a ‘very difficult job’ at Stamford Bridge.
‘It’s a very difficult job for the manager at Chelsea this year,’ the 70-year-old added.
‘I look at that club, and the direction they’ve gone – it just seems to be a mismatch of players that were available and very expensive.
‘Chelsea was paying a premium, because of their reputation and standards. I don’t see them doing any different than they did last year.
‘It’s going to be very difficult, if you’ve got someone of Thiago Silva’s age, to think you’re going to get him to be a top performer every week on the pitch. That won’t happen – he will have his issues at his age – injuries, strains and pulls.
‘That’s an obvious area they need to strengthen in – if you’re leaking goals, the confidence is zapped from your team, and it impacts everyone.
‘If you’ve got a striker that scores goals, like Harry Kane at Spurs, he has won them many games over the years. That confidence retains itself around the group. For Chelsea to be conceding goals has the opposite effect – their conference will be doing away.
‘For Levi Colwill to come into the Chelsea team at 20 years old, to be a consistent performer at that level, is a big shout.
‘My experience of football is that if there’s one area of the pitch you want experience in, it’s at centre-back. If you’re out there as a full-back and you make a mistake, the centre-back can come over and cover.
‘If you make a mistake at centre-back, it generally leads to an effort on your goal. It’s the one area in the team where you need experience.’
