THE FIRST THAT Mason Melia’s St Patrick’s Athletic teammates heard of his record-breaking €2 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur was in the team’s WhatsApp group.
“Everyone just congratulated him,” club captain Joe Redmond said. “You could feel it coming from our point of view, being 17 and being so good. But he never mentioned it, he was as humble as anything.
“It’s great the way he approached it and handled it. He didn’t bring any attention to himself in the dressing room, he kept everything under wraps, which I think is the right thing to do.
“He is fully ambitious, so he wants to go to the next level. If he wants to get to the next level, then he has to work as hard as he has done to get to where he is now. Now he has got to go and take another step.
“He has signed for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so we all congratulated him. But I think he realises that if he doesn’t do the business now with us, I’m sure that will be passed onto him.”
Melia only returned to full training with St Pat’s over the last week as he manages a back issue that flared up at the end of last season.
Managing that recovery, as well as his minutes for 2025, will be down to St Pat’s and boss Stephen Kenny.
There are no added terms and conditions of the deal with the Premier League club, except for the kind of dialogue you would expect about development and progress before he turns 18 in September and starts his new life in north London on 1 January, 2026.
A five-year contract and a transfer that could top €4m is an indication of the investment in Melia’s future.
“There’s no criteria or nothing, we just really, we’ll just look forward to utilising him now,” Kenny said.
“We had to give him a breather, he’s not been in full pre season. We have to take our time with him and make sure he’s right.
“He deserves huge credit for the way he is taking everything in his stride, the speculation. He’d never let you know, he never lets on. He seems to deal with everything so effortlessly and takes it all in. He’s done really well,” Kenny added.
“He wants to be successful this season, he’s got a very grounded family background, obviously coming from Newtownmountkennedy. His mother Pamela drives him to training every morning and she has to find time during the day to do other things and wait for him really.
“He could be in for a double session. He could be in for 9 or 9.30 and then finish late, he’ll get back late Friday after a match and we’d recover Saturday morning somewhere, that’s a drive from Newtown and back up and it’s never an issue.
“He always takes everything in his stride, never complains, gets on with stuff and works hard. He’s a hard working young man, a little bit old school like that. He’s tough, yeah.”
Brexit rules dictate that Melia has not already left for the UK. As detailed about how the move came to pass yesterday, St Pat’s stood firm to ensure a record fee.
It was done because they were able to successfully map out a pathway when he signed his first professional contract – a three-year deal in 2023 – that did not have a buyout clause in the region of €500,000-€600,000.
“It is important. You see with Scandinavian clubs command really high fees for players. It is difficult to attain fees,” Kenny said.
“The clauses in contracts can be difficult for clubs. Sometimes clubs are in a dilemma because they have agents from a young age and maybe the player won’t go or accept a clause.
“This shows there is another good way of doing it. Players come through the academy and they are developed when they go to England or further afield.
“It is another way of doing it, Mason’s stock has kept rising. He is going to a club that have shown they really want him.
“I am personally not hung up on the fee but I get the big picture and the symbolism of that. But certainly, it is interesting because we are in our infancy since Brexit with our young players.”
A new standard has now been set for the League of Ireland’s elite young talent, but Kenny made sure to stress that the significance of the Spurs deal was down to the calibre of the player.
“There is a way for players to come through, like Mason playing in [a LOI] first team, but he is a unique player.
“Not many squads in the Premier Division are going to have too many 16 year olds in the first team. That’s not happening unless you have a developmental side.
“On what criteria are they going to sign someone? The reason Mason was signed was because he played against Istanbul Basaksehir and international centre-halves, gave them a torrid night in Tallaght.
“And because he has gone away in Azerbaijan and played in the three rounds, six games and looked absolutely at home, taken responsibility and played against Shamrock Rovers and played very well and against Shelbourne and did well. So, he has done that but how do you get players through that.
“We shouldn’t think it is an inevitability. When you see players play at that level, and you see that quality, and the chief scouts and the director of football at clubs look and see that there are very few 16 year olds in Europe playing at that level.
Mason is a great example for young players, because he has great humility. And he is very normal outside of his talent, a very normal young man and he carries himself really well. He hasn’t been caught up in all the other stuff around it, which can happen as well, lots of examples. So, he’s a grounded lad who has taken everything in his stride.
“When we were talking about hopes and ambitions for the team [this season] and in team meetings, it was only about what he could do this year for the team, it wasn’t about what was in the future.”
Nice thing to do. Book of condolences at the Leinster game this eve.
a great player with a huge Irish future ahead of him. very sad indeed.
Very fitting for such a lost talent.
RIP