Antonio Conte laughed when he tried to list N’Golo Kante’s areas for improvement. He is probably laughing again at Joey Barton’s and Frank Leboeuf’s attempts to critique Kante’s season.
On the pitch, N’Golo Kante leaves the opposition asking “Where did that guy come from? And what happened to the ball that was just at my feet?” Off the pitch, Kante renders people at a loss to find gaps or deficiencies in his game. Whether it’s a Premier League opponent or a retired countryman , Kante creates few openings for criticism.
French international and ex-Chelsea player Frank Leboeuf and Burnley’s Joey Barton both fell short in their completely pointless attempts to find fault with Kante. Leboeuf made a valid but vapid criticism about Kante’s lack of leadership abilities. Barton, on the other hand, whiffed entirely.
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Frank Leboeuf described Kante as Chelsea’s “Mr. Essential,” but said “he has neither the personality nor the calibre of a leader.”
"Kante doesn’t have a leader’s style of play. He is not a Zinedine Zidane figure. He is timid and lacks the necessary scope… He is the engine, but not the driver. – Evening Standard"
For the sake of argument, let’s stipulate that everything Laboeuf said is true.
So what?
Not every player is going to be a leader. Not every leader is going to be a loud, charismatic or brash warrior, to use another of Leboeuf’s terms. And being a leader is not a necessary condition in weighing whether a player is one of the best in the world.
Kante is undeniably quiet, modest and reserved. Kante rode a children’s scooter to training when he was in France’s lower tiers. When he transferred to Caen in Ligue 2 “his dream was to have a Renault Clio,” according to a profile in the Daily Mail.
In its own way, Kante’s simple lifestyle and unassuming personality is leadership by example. He shows that success and fame are separable, and keeps the focus on football. Much like Cesar Azpilicueta’s gentle “training tomorrow, lads” reminders on social media, Kante does not need to yell and point to get people’s attention.
Every successful club needs an engine just as much as it needs a driver. To hold it against Kante that he is the former and not the latter unnecessarily favours one essential component over the other.
Joey Barton, on the other hand, just does not know what all the hype is about. Under the Barton standard, until N’Golo Kante proves himself in the Champions League he is just another midfielder.
Barton’s self-described “skeptical nature” leads him to question why – if N’Golo Kante is so good – no one heard about him until last year. Barton thinks that Kante is a “fantastic destroyer… but not a creator.” But all that notwithstanding, Barton believes we should all reserve judgment until Kante shows his abilities on the continent.
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Barton is simply moving the goalposts in pursuit of a soundbite. If Chelsea go deep in the Champions League next year, Barton can just as easily say “Yes, but what has Kante done as an international? I will reserve judgment until after this summer’s World Cup.”
Barton’s statement is the continental version of the “cold rainy Wednesday night in Stoke” banter. Pundits should be able to make a confident evaluation of a player’s ability without watching him in every possible situation. That is particularly so if that player is already in one of the world’s top leagues.
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N’Golo Kante plays at such a high level it is hard to imagine him rising to the occasion to prove some critics wrong. Kante will be in the Champions League soon enough. There is little reason to doubt that he will close down space for his opponents and detractors just as effectively as he does in the Premier League.