Mason Mount laughs off Jack Grealish ‘rivalry’ and addresses talk of being a ‘teacher’s pet’

Every manager that works with Mason Mount loves him, but it’s fair to say the player doesn’t like one effect of that. Or, at least, one of the questions from that.

Speaking with England ahead of international week, the 21-year-old is asked about the criticism that he’s “a teacher’s pet”, and whether he feels like one.

“No not at all. I’m a player that wants to do their best for the team and work hard,” Mount says. “And maybe people take that the wrong way, I don’t know.

“You see comments here and there. I’m not one to really look too much into social media and that side of it. I know it’s big in football now, especially when the fans are not at the stadium. I’m not really one to look too much into it. It doesn’t really bother me too much. The main focus for me is playing football.”

Mount gets to do a lot of that, because managers trust him to be disciplined, responsible and - most importantly of all - supremely effective. From the way he speaks about football, you can see he’s one of those with a deep understanding of what he can otherwise do instinctively. No one should be denying his talent, or his application.

Mount’s number of minutes has nevertheless seen him directly cast against a player that hasn’t been used so much for England, in Jack Grealish. They’ve almost been cast as opposites: the maverick against the soldier; the wild card against - yes - the teacher’s pet. Grealish has been portrayed as a player with a natural off-the-cuff skill, Mount as someone who is the homogenised product of an academy. The reality is of course much more complicated than those contrasts, which is why the Chelsea player naturally sees the idea of a “rivalry” as wrong. For one, there are so many more players competing for these positions.

“There are all different players in this squad who can play in different positions. That is the kind of squad that’s been picked. Players that can be played in higher positions and in deeper positions. That’s the focus of the squad. So the comparisons [with Grealish] are not just I don’t think. Me and Jack do different things, along with all the other attacking players and midfielders. We are focused on our own positions and what we can bring to the team personally.

“Hopefully we can all work together, as I said, over the next three games especially and we can play together and do the best we can.”

“I’d never look at it as a rivalry. We are two different players and we do different things, so I’d never look at it as a rivalry. We are two team-mates who play for the same country. We want to do the best for each other, for the team and for the country as well. We are kind of different players. We can play in different roles. I look at the way he’s been playing this season, he’s been unbelievable and we both want to bring that to the next three games coming up.

“I spoke about Jack in the last camp. Obviously we all know what he can do. But I think everyone's always going to have an opinion and say stuff but we have massive focus on our games. Obviously the gaffer chooses the team and the squad and all of us players have just got to work hard to try and get in the starting eleven. We all know what we can do personally but we will have to try and bring that as a team when we're together and just win as many games as we can, especially the next three coming up.

"On Jack you know what he can do, he’s a world class player that can create and score goals and that’s what we need in any England team.”

That’s also how you’d describe Mount. It’s another reason managers love him.