'Just like Frenkie de Jong' - what Manchester United target Mason Mount did five years ago convinced Erik ten Hag

When Erik ten Hag first got a glimpse of the potential of Mason Mount the midfielder was an 18-year-old who was still yet to play a minute of senior football in England.

A loan move to Vitesse Arnhem, who had a productive link with Chelsea at the time, was the making of Mount, confirming the talent the teenager had and setting him on his path to the first team at Stamford Bridge, via another loan with Derby County.

Mount scored 14 goals and finished with nine assists in the 2017/18 season, a productive campaign for himself and for Vitesse, who finished sixth and qualified for the Europa League through an Eredivisie play-off system, a run of games in which their on-loan teenager proved to be vital, scoring five of his goals in three games.

That loan spell alerted Chelsea to his qualities, but it also set in motion a transfer that has been five years in the making. In a league often packed with potential, Mount caught the eye more than most in that Eredivisie campaign. He was named in the Team of the Season and won Vitesse's Player of the Year award.

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One interested observer was Erik ten Hag, who was in charge of Ajax. Vitesse did the double over Ten Hag's Ajax that year and while Mount was on the bench in Amsterdam, by the time the rematch was played in March 2018 he was integral to his team's play. His free-kick helped to create one of the goals in a famous 3-2 win.

Ten Hag was reported at the time to have been impressed with Mount's abilities during his year in the Netherlands, in particular his creativity and intelligence of pressing, a trait that the now 24-year-old has never lost. In July 2018 Derby won the race to sign Mount