Basically nobody wants Utd to sign Mount for that price. There's no pressure on the club to sign him. If we really want him we can easily wait a year.
The pressure may come from Ten Hag if he's fed up of missing out on his first choice targets.
It also depends who the viable alternatives are.
"Sign him next summer for free" sounds great, but if we end up spending £60m on an alternative this summer, by next year the space in the team for Mount may not be as obvious.
I really think we need 2 midfielders this summer either way. I won't be happy if we don't reinforce our midfield this summer just so we can wait for Mount next year, when there's no 100% guarantee he ends up joining us anyway. If you don't strengthen the weak areas this summer you can pay the price next season. We've seen it before where we do all the hard work getting back into the top 4, then have a shit transfer window and we end up going backwards or stagnating.
Mac Allister honestly would have made so much more sense than this circus of chasing Mount for an extortionate price. No idea how we let him go to Liverpool for peanuts, or why he would choose Liverpool over us.