THIS week has seen the discussion blowing up surrounding the potential sale of Chelsea’s work horse midfielder N’Golo Kante.
I’ll start by admitting that on this subject, personally, I have changed my mind, which is why I am perfectly situated to see both sides.
Judging by social media reactions, it looks like the majority of Chelsea supporters are also 50/50 split when asked if they would sell Kante, which is why the answer for me is never going to be cut and dry.
I have thought long and hard about whether I would sell Kante if I was Frank Lampard, but I am now 100 per cent sure of my conclusion. I’ll start with the negative argument.
If Lampard sticks with a 4-3-3, which looks likely to be his main choice of line-ups, then Kante is uncomfortable playing in one of the more advanced positions in midfield.
He doesn’t bring enough to the attacking and creative side of the team even though he is predominantly high up the pitch, so his position becomes wasted.
He does a job there, but does not bring anything extra, which is what Lampard needs from his advanced midfielders.
Injuries are a concern and have become a pattern.
Kante has not played a lot of football at all for Lampard this season, so understandably this could produce pretty good reasoning to sell.
This could also be the last time Chelsea can demand a high fee for Kante, and can invest it back into new players.
This is the truth for me, Kante will be 30 years old come the end of this year and his value will only drop from now on, especially if his injuries keep persisting.
Chelsea could ask for close to £100million if they sold him right now, which is a decent lump of cash that could go straight into the budget for new players, which Lampard needs.
These are three very strong and true arguments for selling Kante, and this was in the forefront of my thinking when I was onboard with selling him.
But I’ve changed my mind, I am firmly in the keep Kante camp now, and I feel it is an absolute must. Here are my opposing arguments to the above points.
Lampard is known to rotate his formation between matches and even in-game. He often uses a 4-2-3-1 as well, and this is where we see the world class version of Kante.
Play him in that role, start him in that role against teams who we know will attack us a lot more and want to keep the ball just as much as us. This is when you NEED Kante.
Play him deeper; use him in a double pivot which is where he helped France win a World Cup. But I don’t want to see him playing advanced.
I also don’t want to see him playing as a defensive midfielder, because Lampard likes to play out from the back so needs one of his technically perfect midfielders in there.
You are also losing Kante’s best asset if you restrict him to a holding midfield role – his energy. I want him free to go hunting for the ball back, I want him covering the back four one minute, then sprinting forward with the ball to setup a counter-attack the next.
Sell him just because he isn’t suited to a 4-3-3? Definitely not, just don’t start him every single match and use him against certain teams, or in certain points in games when we are under pressure – THAT is why you don’t sell a world class centre midfielder of his caliber.
The injuries are a new thing, he was never prone to injury at Leicester City, neither was he when he first joined Chelsea.
Is this an age thing? I highly doubt that.
I think he has just been incredibly unlucky the past two seasons and I fully believe that he will continue to stay fit moving forward because this is not something he has regularly suffered with throughout his career.
He’s getting older yes, but in the grand scheme of things he is still very young.
Kante has ridiculous stamina and energy, even at 29 years old. His pace will obviously decrease over time, but not for at least another two years.
In today’s game, for someone who looks after themselves like Kante does and has the naturally gifted high stamina level, then trust me, he is far from old.
Sure, his value will decrease from now onwards, but are Chelsea really that desperate for a chunk of cash bearing in mind they still have the Eden Hazard money and did not spend a penny last summer due to the transfer ban?
They have a good enough budget to go and sign the players they need without selling Kante, so this doesn’t cut it for me anymore.
Besides, it isn’t our money as fans is it!?
I can see both sides of this argument. However, players like Kante are extremely rare.
There is no better player in world football that does what he does as effectively as he does it. He is the best ball winner and interceptor in the game in my view, and nobody touches his stamina levels.
Keep him in the squad, albeit maybe not as an indispensable starter anymore, but we will absolutely need him, his experience, his energy, and his presence out there a lot more than some people realise.
He is quite simply Chelsea’s only world class player right now – so why would you want to sell your only world class player? Not me, Kante in.
