Aspinall Urges Brighton to Pursue Mount in Baleba Deal
Warren Aspinall has never been shy with an opinion, and the former Brighton midfielder has a clear idea of how his old club should play it if Manchester United come calling for Carlos Baleba again.
If United revive their interest in the Brighton midfielder, Aspinall believes the Seagulls should push hard for Mason Mount to head the other way.
On the Albion Unlimited podcast, Aspinall laid out the kind of opportunistic thinking he wants to see at the Amex. United tracked Baleba heavily in the summer of 2025, only for the move to fizzle out. The fallout was obvious: Baleba’s form dipped badly last season under Fabian Hürzeler, just as his stock had been rising.
Mount, meanwhile, has endured his own slide. Since swapping Chelsea for Old Trafford in 2023, his United career has stalled under the weight of injuries and inconsistency. Now, with the midfield reshaped again, Aspinall sees an opening.
“I was thinking – if Baleba did go to Manchester United then I’d see if I could get Mason Mount as part of the deal,” he said. Not a loan. Not a polite enquiry. A proper makeweight in a major transfer.
The logic is simple. United have just brought in Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos, adding to the rapid rise of Kobbie Mainoo. Aspinall expects that trio to form the core of United’s midfield. That leaves Mount squeezed, looking over his shoulder at younger talent like Tyler Fletcher.
“He’s not going to be in the side because they’ve just signed two midfield players in Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos,” Aspinall argued. “Those two and Kobbie Mainoo will be starters, so where does that leave Mount?”
From Brighton’s perspective, it is a rare chance. Mount, still in his prime years, with Champions League and international experience, potentially available as a makeweight in a deal for a player who has yet to prove he can sustain his best level over a full Premier League season.
For now, though, United are the only club with any serious links to Baleba, and their recent spending in midfield raises the real prospect that nothing happens at all. If that is how it plays out, Aspinall is clear: the hard work then shifts back to Hürzeler and his coaching staff.
For Baleba, he says, the message from the manager has to be blunt and personal.
“The manager has to sit him down in a one-to-one situation and say, ‘look, just get your head down, do what you did not last season but the season before, and they will all come for you then’.”
Because the talent is not in doubt. Aspinall is effusive about the midfielder’s raw tools: “They would all be after him because he’s excellent. He’s strong, powerful, breaks the lines very well. It was easy for him in certain games.”
The problem, in his eyes, is the distraction that comes when a club the size of Manchester United starts circling. A young player hears the noise, tastes the possibility of a “big move and big payday”, and focus slips just enough to blunt the edge that made him so attractive in the first place.
“Sometimes you get a sniff from a club like Manchester United and you start to think about that big move and big payday but it has not happened,” Aspinall said. “You have to get your head down, go again, and see where it takes him.”
So the crossroads is clear. If Baleba stays, Aspinall wants to see a full reset: no sulking, no drifting, just a midfielder tearing into games again and dragging Brighton with him.
“If he does stay he needs to knuckle down and he can have a great season at Brighton,” he insisted. “If he plays well, Brighton play well because he wins that midfield battle. If he is at the top of his game he makes his team-mates believe.”
Whether Brighton end up fronting up to United over Mount or rebuilding Baleba’s confidence on the south coast, the message from one of their former players is unmistakable: this situation cannot drift.
