Football is a game where emotion meets professionalism. While the fans represent emotions and the players represent professionalism. But every now and then comes a situation that borders on the twilight of the two and Manchester United’s game against Chelsea bore a stark example of the latter.
Mason Mount, a former Chelsea player, joined Manchester United in 2023 and earlier this week, he went to face his old club. Unfortunately, he ended up on the losing side and during the match, he had a few bust-ups with the Chelsea players. There is nothing out of the ordinary here, or is there? Let’s dive a bit into the details to expose the devil!
The ‘Foe’
Mount’s four-minute stay at the pitch during the most exhilarating time of the fixture brought out how easily opinions change in football. A player who grew up wearing the Blue shirt, since the age of six, was called a “cagon” or coward, by Enzo Fernandez who joined Chelsea only a season prior. Not only that, fans in the stadium brought shirts with “Judas” written on them to slander the 25-year-old.
Enzo and Mount got into a tussle where the Argentine was pushed away by the latter. Mount was not involved in much of the action as it was Chelsea doing most of the damage. After the match ended, Enzo was seen tapping the Chelsea badge right in front of the England international and screaming the words, “This is Chelsea, cagon.”
Enzo has been a great find for Chelsea and since his post-World Cup move, he has nailed his position in the team. Despite his skills and composure on the ball, Enzo has managed five goal contributions in the Premier League this season.
Apart from the Argentine, Mark Cucurella, the Spanish left-back was also seen rubbing salt on the fresh wound of defeat. While Fernandez has spent only the latter half of the season with Mount, the Spaniard has been a part of the team since the start of the 22/23 season.
Another youngster from the academy, Alfie Gilchrist, also posted a cryptic post on his Instagram captioned “We fight till the end”, followed by a couple of blue hearts with an image of Mount and him in the carousel. As if faintly directing to Mount’s inability to fight for his place and running away to join the Red Devils.
Being at the Chelsea academy since 2005, Mount has definitely made some friends and one of them was Trevoh Chalobah. The 24-year-old defender was pretty close to the action. During the celebration, while Chalobah was not so brazen as Enzo and co., he was seen directing his celebrations at Mount.
Chalobah was one of the many who was sad to see Mount leave Chelsea. When the news was announced, Chalobah posted ‘My boy’ with a crying emoji along with a broken heart.
The Silent ‘Friend’
In the 93rd minute, when Erik Ten Hag decided to introduce Mount to replace Alejandro Garnacho, Reece James was seated in the Chelsea dugout. James, who is also a Chelsea youth prodigy, has grown up with Mount in the academy.
Currently sidelined due to surgery, James was seen slowly applauding the introduction of his former teammate. The right-back is one of the most talented players in the country but his body has been the biggest thorn in his rise to fame. In this season alone, he has missed six months of football due to different injury setbacks.
Now it remains to be seen if Mount can mount a comeback in the comings days to wipe off the Judas and prove his move to the Red end of Manchester.
