Mason Mount insists he is ready for renewed competition for places if Chelsea successfully appeal their Fifa transfer ban and are able to sign players in January.
The 20-year-old is set to start against Ajax in tonight’s Champions League Group H clash at Stamford Bridge, continuing the emergence of a crop of academy graduates partly driven by the current two-window suspension.
Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham have all become first-team regulars this season — and earned senior England call-ups — as head coach Frank Lampard seeks to end a poor record of promoting youth at the club.
The Blues’ currently cannot make any new acquisitions until next summer after being found guilty of breaking regulations on signing players under the age of 18.
Fifa claimed Chelsea broke 150 rules involving 71 players. However, the club have always denied any wrongdoing and the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear their appeal on November 20.
Chelsea are believed to be arguing they should be given the same opportunity to accept a fine as Manchester City, who paid £315,000 in August for breaching rules on transfers of young players. The rule which allowed this came into effect in July — Chelsea were originally punished in March.
And when asked about the possibility of Chelsea adding depth to their squad if the ban is lifted, Mount said: “We’ve had to deal with that during our whole time in the academy. You come into a team and there’s players from different countries and you’ve got to work and show how good you are.
“There’s always been that competition within Chelsea. You’ve got to fight or your place. We want to win trophies. We want to be top of the league. We just need to keep working hard and when that time comes we’ll be ready for that.”
Chelsea are seeking a second consecutive victory over Ajax having won 1-0 in Amsterdam. N’Golo Kante, Andreas Christensen and Ross Barkley are available after injury but Lampard warned his players against complacency.
“We’ve had two good results [against Lille and Ajax] and another one would be great with two games left,” he said.
“But we must understand that even though we are at home, the quality and danger from Ajax is as much if not more than when we played away because they are such a good technical team.”
