Frank Lampard vs Jose Mourinho… it still doesn’t quite sound right, does it?
For the best part of five seasons, Jose and Frank were two names synonymous with Chelsea Football Club.
Over the four years or so they were together, in both of Jose’s spells at the club, they were two of the most influential protagonists in English football.
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It’s amazing how much football can change in four years.
Jose, now of course at the helm of Chelsea’s biggest title rivals back in the good ol’ days, will be facing his former golden boy in the Old Trafford dug-out in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
As Lampard makes his way up the M6, he will be looking to a Chelsea loanee to spring a shock in Manchester.
If Mason Mount can achieve half of what his Derby boss did during his career he can feel satisfied with plenty of comparisons between the two.
He’s a young, technical midfielder who has already chipped in with goals for the Rams and England U21s this season.
He has 13 in 26 for England across the junior teams, and two in six for Derby so far.
But the ‘next Lampard’ tag has to be approached cautiously.
A young Chelsea player tipped to be the next big thing whilst out on loan; where have we heard that before?
Josh MacEachern, Lewis Baker, Gael Kakuta and Izzy Brown have all been hyped up only to all fall by the way side, usually after a loan move to Vitesse.
None of the aforementioned manage to break into the first team for a consistent period.
But with Mount it feels different, and crucially he has the ideal mentor to ensure he doesn’t fade into the abyss like his predecessors.
Lampard himself was loaned to Swansea at the age of 17 and claimed it was his “first experience of man’s football.”
With regular game time and a manager who not only believes in him but has been there, done that, Mount has the surroundings to make sure Chelsea are watching intently.
At United on Tuesday night he has a platform to flourish for one Chelsea legend whilst piling the misery on another.
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