Barely a month since the transfer window opened, which signing has caught your eye and who is most likely to produce a plethora of Premier League highlights?
There’s a fair few to look at so far – and more will inevitably follow – so fans will naturally be intrigued to see how they fare.
Yet the one that excites me is no stranger to the Premier League.
He has developed into a real talent and, after being at his boyhood club since the age of six, it was a wrench for him to leave them and for them to lose him.
However, he heard what Erik ten Hag was preaching and liked what he heard.
The fact he has now being given the fabled number seven shirt at his new club shows how highly thought of he is.
Step forward Mason Mount.
Not only could he well inject fresh impetus into the Red Devils, but the overall package is an exciting one.
His versatility is also a strength and, given Bruno Fernandes played around 70 games for club and country last term, the need for another influential creative player of this stature at Old Trafford was clear.
Capable of operating in an attacking role at number 10, or in from the right or left, he occasionally operated as a false nine for the Blues.
He will be an option in a front three behind a central striker, but with Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Christian Eriksen, Ten Hag is hardly short of players in that role. Marcus Rashford is another who could play in that three, particularly if Manchester United sign a striker this summer.
Mount does not seem to have stopped smiling during his first week at the club, although he obviously will be judged on what he does on the pitch rather than how positively he talks away from it.
That bodes potentially well and, while performances in pre-season will not dictate the success of his signing, friendlies over the next month could well indicate how he’ll be used and who he will be ahead of in the pecking order.
The view that he appears to be a very good acquisition for United has also been described as part of a masterplan for his former team – they may deem it a triumph of negotiating – although that is doubtful given the club did not want to sell him.
Letting Ruben Loftus-Cheek join AC Milan was understandable; Chelsea can lament what might have been if a huge talent had stayed fit but, at 27, he had only made 155 appearances for them.
But Mount was different: Chelsea’s player of the year in two of the last three campaigns and a footballer who looked among the best suited of their squad to new manager Mauricio Pochettino’s requirements.
Many felt he should have been a Stamford Bridge lifer; maybe a future captain, possibly ending up with 500 or 600 appearances to his name.
Over the last year the soap opera of Chelsea has seen them contrived to hire three managers and 18 players – plus bidding for dozens of others – and given several of their existing squad new deals without managing to extend Mount’s contract.
It should have been one of the top priorities for the new regime; it did not feel that way and, while Chelsea can claim they had to sell the midfielder to prevent him from leaving on a free transfer, it has the air of a situation they created themselves. His sale was an indictment of their powerbrokers.
How United will line-up in August when the Premier League season begins is anyone’s guess, but their SBOTOP Premier League betting odds will only be enhanced by the arrival of such a talent.
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