I'm neither for or against the signing of Mount, personally. Think he's a good player, but there's also other good players out there, obviously.
However, since ETH wants him, and he's his #1 choice, then I'm hoping we do get him for that reason. I'm backing ETH to know what he's doing and to have made the right call opting for Mount ahead of others.
With that in mind, I'd prefer us sit down with Chelsea and agree a fee rather than walking away and giving ETH his second, third, fourth choice instead. I don't want us to 'overpay' when it comes to last minute panic buys. But I think it's OK to 'overpay' to land your first choice target - especially, like in this case, when we are talking somewhere between £5-10 million more than we've already been happy to bid.
There's times when it's right to make a statement, and times when it's biting your nose to spite your face. The Caicedo and Haaland disagreements with the agents, clauses, etc, were times when we should have carried on and got the player in my view rather than make a point. And this one - the reported fees are very close now, seems a strange time to give up on your first choice over a disagreement of a comparatively small amount of money.