Mason Mount reveals he turned down Southampton due to Portsmouth roots

England prospect Mason Mount has revealed he snubbed the chance to join Southampton as a youngster due to his allegiance with Portsmouth.

Mount, 19, has rose to prominence this season, having shown real promise in the early days of his loan at Derby under the tutelage of Frank Lampard and was rewarded with his full England U21 debut this week which saw him net the winning goal against Latvia.

The midfielder grew up on the South Coast supporting Portsmouth and trained with his boyhood club, Southampton and Chelsea as a youngster before eventually settling at Stamford Bridge.

Mason had offers from all three clubs and admitted, that although it was hard to turn down his beloved Pompy, rivals Southampton were just not an option.

'It was tough to turn down Pompey. I was a massive fan, season-ticket holder and grew up watching them,' he told the Sun.

'Southampton wasn't as tough! I went there and I had to wear the kit and just didn't want to in training. No disrespect but I am a Pompey boy! I found it too hard wearing that kit.

'It was hard turning Pompey down but the difference between them and Chelsea was massive.

'Chelsea were a year or two ahead of what Pompey were doing with the facilities and the boys, who were so competitive.'

Mount, who has appeared in all bar 15 minutes of Derby’s eight league and cup games this season, has long been on Gareth Southgate's radar due to his technical ability and eye for goal.

But the young Chelsea loanee insisted it has been ingrained in him by his father Tony that he must also work hard to improve other aspects of his game - something that was apparent in Jelgava on Tuesday evening.

He added: ‘Dad always said to me, “You have got to do the dirty work”.

‘He told me you can’t just be good on the ball. You have to track back, you have to make tackles and get stuck in. I always want to introduce that into what I am doing now. I don’t just want to be an attacking player who gets into the box and scores goals. I’ve got to do it all.’