After N’Golo Kante gave the impression of being superhuman for so long, the breakdown was inevitable but still a shock.
Indefatigable, indomitable, invulnerable, the Frenchman has so often performed the duties of two men in the midfield.
and Maurizio Sarri pushed Kante’s body to its limit for three seasons, playing him in every minute of football they could, and was left to deal with the consequences.
Last season was the one in which Chelsea’s midfield marathon runner finally hit his wall. The heavy workload caught up with Kante, who suffered a series of injuries and only played in 28 of 55 club matches.
So it seems incredibly harsh that Kante has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge during this summer window.
The latest is that that involved Christian Eriksen and Marcelo Brozovic coming the other way in part-exchange for Kante.
It seems that Conte, now the manager of Inter, wishes to run Kante into the ground some more but in a different league.
But Lampard has always publicly insisted that Kante isn’t for sale and if they’re to sell any of their midfielders this summer, it would be Jorginho instead.
‘I’ve said it a lot of times about N’Golo – one of the best midfield players in the world. I would have loved to be able to play with him. He has everything,’ Lampard said back in June. Continue reading