Chelsea: Never take N’Golo Kante for granted

It’s easy to ignore N’Golo Kante’s continued excellence for Chelsea with all of the new faces in the squad, but do so at your peril.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted; that is a lesson many people across the globe have learned in the 29 years since his arrival into this world. Yet, to some the concept may be blindingly obvious, it is one that still rings true for an alarmingly large section of the Chelsea fanbase.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted. While much has been made of Chelsea’s transformation from a ragtag group of attacking naifs to a stubborn troupe of tactical intellectuals, a lot of the credit is being given to fresh-faced likes of Ben Chilwell, Edouard Mendy and Thiago Silva, it is Kante who remains the pivotal defensive player. It is Kante who offers Silva that extra second to prepare himself for those one-on-one duels he so excels at, despite his age. It is Kante who affords his back line a much-needed breather by covering the hard yards that no one else will, and making them look effortlessly easy.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted. Though bright, shiny new stars like Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz have been attributed with the moniker of game changers, rewarding this newfound solidity with the goals and points it deserves, it is Kante who remains the lynchpin between defence and attack. It is Kante who continues to not just deconstruct opposing attacks with his hassling, but construct them with his harrying runs upfield, the likes of which few—nay none—other midfielders of his ilk can produce.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted. Despite Frank Lampard garnering deserved acclaim for this particular turnaround, it is Kante who offers managers perhaps the greatest prize of all in modern football—the footballer that can. The footballer that can do it all. The footballer that can insatiably press, distastefully disrupt and gloriously gallop. The footballer that can both fit in wherever you want him to and provide an anchor so secure it can hold even the most feeble foundations together. The footballer that can inspire Paul Pogba to track back and release him to play at his most potent. The footballer that unlocks just as well as he locks.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted. The man who raises the levels of all around him to such an astronomical extent, it convinced Chelsea that Danny Drinkwater was worth £35 million. The man who through all the accolades—back-to-back Premier League titles, a World Cup and the Team of the Years—drove the same Mini Cooper. The man who only relented upon said modesty with the move to a Mercedes because, as a parting gift for the innumerable amount of money he’d made for him, Drinkwater gave it to him (…I mean, presumably). The man who, when missing his train home, goes to the local mosque and ends up beating a bunch of Liverpool and Arsenal fans at FIFA before joining them to chow down on a curry in front of Match of the Day.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted. A midfielder who has challenged the perceptions of what a midfielder can do and be throughout his career. A player who has played under three different Chelsea managers and excelled in all three sides, despite all the mishandled and misshaped obstacles thrown in his way. A superstar who’s amassed an army of admirers far and wide all too eager to take him off the Blues’ hands. A generational talent who—if we’re not too careful, if we lurch into complacency, if we deign to ignore for a second—could slip out of our grasp forever. A man who, on and off the pitch, leads his life with a decorum every one of us could learn from.

Never take N’Golo Kante for granted.