The undisputed footballing fan-favourite and Blues champion, N’Golo Kante, celebrated his 29th birthday on the 29th March. To celebrate, the team at SW6Daily believed it would be fitting to pay our humble hero (and one of my personal favourites) a small tribute given his service to the club by having a look at his impressive professional footballing journey so far.
The story so far...
The World Cup winner and 2-time Premier League Champion kicked-off his professional career in his native France playing for Boulogne (2012) and Caen (2013-2014) respectively. After playing an important role in helping Caen get promoted to Ligue 1, it was former Blues scout Steve Walsh (also responsible for bringing in the legendary Gianfranco Zola and Didier Drogba), who convinced Leicester to part ways with a reported 5.6m pounds to bring in the future superstar to the Foxes and be managed by former Blues manager Claudio Ranieri aka ‘the tinkerman’. As the footballing world witnessed in 2015/16, what he achieved with the Foxes was nothing short of amazing to say the least. While much of the credit is attributed to the dynamic partnership of the electric Riyad Mahrez and the lethal Jamie Vardy, the fulcrum of the team belonged in the heart of Leicester’s midfield, in particular, the steel and guile of the impenetrable Kante (who even made Drinkwater look good, a discussion for another time).
After making history with Leicester, Chelsea were able to outfox the foxes by luring Kante to join the ‘right’ Blues for a modest £32 million pounds given what talent was on offer! Reflecting back, this was the textbook definition of a bargain that we would forever cherish. Interestingly, it was indeed another Italian (Antonio Conte) who was able to extract the maximum value from the dynamic pocket rocket. The former box-to-box fox not only brought with him his indefatigable work-rate and super-human stamina, but with that, he elevated those around him due to his relentless execution and sheer superior consistency. His energy and defensive capabilities allowed the attacking players to flourish at what they do best knowing that they could rely on Kante for insurance, while at the same time, he added extra security to the defence which gave them confidence that resulted to less goals being conceded (33, as opposed to 53 the season before).
While Chelsea had the magical Belgian Hazard pulling the strings at the front end, there’s no disputing that Kante was an exceptionally-vital cog in the Chelsea machine that won the title in the 2016/2017 premier league campaign. Kante’s second consecutive PL title with a different team represented a powerful insight into the influence that the little French champion had on those around him. Further, this special feat was quite rare and included the illustrious company of the mercurial Eric Cantona during his Leeds/Utd double in the early 90s On a personal level, his influence was tangibly recognised in him being crowned the Premier League player of the season! A thoroughly deserved accolade for our own version of Mr Incredible.
In his second season under Conte however, things didn’t seem to tick as easily for the Blues which is thought to be attributed to the chasing pack upping their game, while the Blues at the same time struggling to re-invent themselves given their revolutionary 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 formation and style had now been nullified. While the season was not a total disaster in the sense we managed to secure yet another FA Cup, a 5th place finish in the League ultimately spelled the unfortunate end for Conte, and the continuation of the revolving Chelsea managerial door. From Kante’s perspective though, he was one of a few players that maintained his impeccable standards and could hold his head up high. As evidence of this, Kante played a strong role in helping Les Bleus win their 2nd World Cup.
Must be something about Blue and Kante that equals success…
With Chelsea acquiring the services of yet another Italian manager, this time the possession-based and tactically-dogged Maurizio Sarri from Napoli, this would result in a dramatic change to not just the team’s philosophical style of play, but also personally for Kante.
Having established himself as the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League, and arguably the world, Sarri was determined to use his trusted lieutenant and fellow Italian that he brought over from Napoli (Jorginho) in the pivot role as a conductor. This resulted in Kante being deployed in an unusually advanced position that caused bemusement to fans and pundits alike. While the little superstar continued to go about his business with a smile and work as hard as normal, his discomfort in this new-found position was visible to all except for Sarri. In fairness to Sarri, Kante’s positional shift gave him the ability to make forward runs and press higher up the pitch which did create chances for the team, and also allowed him to sharpen his ball-playing and dribbling skills , and arguably the most improved stat was his goals tally (scoring and assisting 4 that season compared with scoring and assisting 1 the previous two campaigns). Notwithstanding this, his absence in front of the back four also led to a substantial decline in Chelsea’s defensive resilience which is what drew significant criticism as his replacement does not possess similar physical attributes (in saying that, he does bring about different qualities to the team).
Current state
While Kante has taken his positional adjustement into his stride with no complaints, and has been able to demonstrate he has strong technical abilities beyond that of being a highly-effective box-to-box defensive shield, many still feel he is not being utilised to the best of his abilities given how he established himself as a dynamic defensive mid. Then again, the optimists would suggest that he is that good of a player that he can still make the Blues starting XI despite not playing his preferred position. This point of view would be substantiated through seeing his direct goal contributions since being moved out of DM, and knowing he still naturally tends to put on his defensive hat to help thwart out dangerous attacks which we have seen over the past couple of seasons. Having said that, the team’s collective finishes since his positional change, along with observing the very noticeable defensive vulnerability that has arisen, would suggest this change has not been a positive for the team overall. However, what this does reinforce is how important and influential Kante is.
In analysing this season’s performances, injuries have unfortunately hampered his performances in the 2019/20 campaign. The injuries are thought to be attributed to a lag effect resulting from the high volume and intensity of his play during the past 3 seasons. We need to remember that given his importance to the team, he played in the majority of games across all competitions (FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League and the World Cup), including arguably the most physically demanding league in Europe (simply due to the continuity of the competition throughout the festive period relative to other European leagues). Given this disappointing season for N’Golo, which has seen his ability to impress Frank be limited, we can only be hopefully that his legacy acts as his opportunity to overcome this season’s hurdles and prove his incredible worth to Frank, Jody and the team and remind everyone that he is still world class.
Given his lack of playing time due to him being overworked and hindered by injuries, and considering Frank’s new attack-based style he has brought in which requires a specific type of profile, there has been much robust discussion among the Blues fan base whether or not the smiling assassin should/will still be a part of Frank’s Bluesprint for next season. This is an absolutely surreal concept if you were to rewind the clock back a season or two ago. However, this author would like us to show some love and loyalty to this particular Blue as it wasn’t too long ago we were being shopped by the perennial sharks in Madrid circling the Blues for our best fish in Eden and N’Golo. While they ended up getting our Belgian maestro (partly due to him being a boyhood fan of Madrid and Zidane), one must not forget Kante committed to us for another 5 years during the peak of his powers to make a real statement to all potential suitors that ‘I’m here to stay, otherwise you’ll have pay through the roof!’.
The highlights
While signing the rising star who just finished playing a pivotal role in helping the foxes win the Premier League is a highlight in itself, Blues fans (and football fans alike), have been treated with some special moments on a regular basis produced by our humble hero.
To be honest, each and every game I watch of the Blues where Kante is involved, I always am left impressed with how he plays. Whether it is mopping up a dangerous counter-attack, coming in with a crucial tackle or interception, nutmegging a player (in general or to score!), making a driving run with the ball, an unchecked run into the box, or as we have seen (on rare occasions admittedly), him scoring a memorable goal.
Some of these key moments are discussed in a bit of detail on SW6Daily’s Twitter, although for me some highlights that spring to mind include:
- His rocket against City from inside the box where Eden laid it off to him and he hit with such venom I almost didn’t see it go in!
- The triple nutmeg goal against Spurs.
- The top corner curler against Livo. Although we ended up losing somehow, Kante bamboozled key rival Fabinho and curled an absolute peach that I’ll never forget.
- His mazy dribble on Smalling and class finish beyond De Gea to seal the icing on the cake on a 4-0 demolition of United.
- His outside of the box winner against United (again) in the FA Cup.
- His tackle and assist for Pedro against Fulham.
- His memorable last-ditch tackles on Arnautovic against West Ham, Silva of City, Salah and Mane of Liverpool.
Happy birthday N’Golo! Regardless of what your future holds with the Blues, you will always be a Chelsea champion! Once a Blue, always a Blue!
Sources: http://www.premierleague.com, http://www.transfermarkt.com
By Ross-John (RJ) Bonaccorsi
Edited by Dami Adeleye