N’Golo Kante drops a major Chelsea transfer hint as Thomas Tuchel’s promise is fulfilled
Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has given the strongest indication yet that he will not follow in Jorginho’s footsteps by attempting to engineer a transfer escape from the club this summer.
Kante, 31, has spent six years in the blue of Chelsea, winning practically every trophy available since joining from Premier League winners at the time Leicester City in 2016.
Various injury issues and troubles have meant that his separate managers – with Thomas Tuchel being the most recent – have had to place less reliance on his consistent services as he ages towards the sunset years of his peak playing career.
Nonetheless, his importance cannot be overstated, as evidenced by his superb cameo in the FA Cup final last weekend, where he supplied much-needed enthusiasm that had dwindled with Jorginho and an injured Mateo Kovacic.
With Jorginho linked with a summer move to Serie A heavyweights Juventus, any transfer may put Chelsea in a bind.
With the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Marcos Alonso preparing to take on fresh challenges in La Liga this summer, we already know how much money is required at the back.
Coupled with this, the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner might leave amid recent ties to Bayern Munich, suggesting that more than two midfield exits could overload Todd Boehly and his consortium with things to do when his £4.25billion buy is formally completed.
With all the other requirements needing to be ticked off first, one midfielder among persistent Aurelien Tchouameni and Declare Rice links would be possible, and Conor Gallagher’s return from his Crystal Palace loan next season will help improve that area.
As a result, hearing the 31-year-old Premier League star drop the biggest signal yet that he would be staying for 2022/23 despite having one year left on his contract after this season will be music to Chelsea manager Tuchel’s ears. In a pre-Leicester interview, he told Sky Sports: “The only thing is sure that I have one more year and the only thing is to finish this season. I’ll think about it in the right time.”
What a great guy and a pleasure to sit down and chat to for @SkySportsNews.
— James Green (@JamesGreenInUK) May 17, 2022
On his future:
“The only thing is sure that I have one more year and the only thing is to finish this season. I’ll think about it in the right time.” #CFC pic.twitter.com/V2dChSrCRc
This statement has validated Tuchel’s worries about losing his reliable players in the summer amid Rudiger’s reported decision to depart for Real Madrid.
“Nobody wants that with big players and important players nowadays,” he said in a press conference back in April.
“It’s a wish as a coach that we solve this in the summer in any way, that we solve it and it’s clear where the journey is and what the decision is. Yes, this is the wish.
“[If not] we have the same talks that we have had about Toni and Andreas. You just swap the names. We would talk about it through winter and then comes January, and then agents are talking to this club and the brother another. It would be nice if we can avoid it but at the moment it’s difficult [because of the sanctions]. But this should be the target for all of us.”
Unfortunately, with no new contract on the table and Kante set to become a free agent in June 2023, we can expect to hear a lot more from his agency in the coming months, with Paris Saint-Germain a known long-term admirer of the Les Bleus international.
In the near term, with this new Kante admission concerning his immediate future, it appears to be a win-win situation for both Tuchel and Boehly, who now have one less issue to worry about.
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N’Golo Kante drops a major Chelsea transfer hint as Thomas Tuchel’s promise is fulfilled
