Why Arsenal must make this midfielder their Number One Target

In a season where all the talk has been about Leicester achieving the unthinkable, Arsenal fans cannot help but look back and think why the players did not manage to capitalise on the ‘Top Four’s’ failings this year. What is it that Leicester have got, that Arsenal do not? What could have helped Arsenal achieve so much more this season? Could N’Golo Kante be one of many reasons?

N’Golo Kante has been one of the most reviewed players of the season, achieving nominations for PFA player awards as well as featuring in the Premier League team of the season. Kante has been a brick wall for Leicester this season, a real interceptor and he has the fight and drive in a player that Arsenal really could have done with this year!

With silly season just around the corner for transfer rumours as the Domestic Leagues begin to come to a close, Kante to Arsenal has been a headline popping up more than a few times. Arsenal’s very own Media Watch has highlighted various rumours of Kante to Arsenal over the past few days, including articles in the Express , Mirror and Star and there certainly could be some smoke in the fire with these rumours.

N’Golo Kante was only recruited by Leicester at the start of the season and was a relatively unknown star waiting to be born. Playing for Caen in the French Division, Leicester scouts spotted a type of player that the Gunners have been on the search for, for a number of years. It’s actually surprising with Arsene Wenger’s commitment to the French League’s (although lesser so in recent seasons) that a gem like Kante was not scouted on the books by the Gunners, however now according to the growing rumours, Arsenal may have a chance of nabbing the French International after all.

The rumours have suggested that Kante has a release clause of £20 million, a price tag that will be interesting a lot of clubs this summer and certainly one that Arsenal should look towards paying. As with fellow Leicester player, Riyad Mahrez, although Leicester have achieved great things this season, many of the players may be looking to leave the club with the belief that it is quite possible the unthinkable will be achieved twice in succession. Therefore with the big clubs circling across Europe, if the release clause is true, then Kante will have a big decision to make about his future and he’d be a perfect fit in Arsenal’s midfield.

The Gunners have being calling out for a defensive midfielder ever since the days of Gilberto and a player with the strength and passion of Vieira. Arsenal had thought they had found their man in Francis Coquelin last season, who in turn had his own fairytale season, but this year he has not impressed overall to the same capacity and with the addition of Elneny to the side, Coquelin has lost his place in a compact midfield. Kante possesses the qualities Arsenal players should have in passion, fight and drive. Coquelin holds these qualities as well and is also a fantastic interceptor of the ball on his day. However with Arteta and Flamini soon out of contract and seemingly on their way out of the club this summer there is room for another defensive minded midfielder.

Kante could be that man, he holds all the right player traits and desire to achieve success. Kante seems like a player that likes to keep his head down and just get the job done and although it is going to be a battle to get him away from Leicester City in the first place as well as to fend off the challenges from other clubs, if Arsenal is looking for a defensive midfielder this summer to replace the outgoings, then Kante should definitely be a top priority.

Ashley

Tags Kante Leicester

17 Comments

  1. Wenger will never sign kante as long as he has Ramsey, in his deluded eyes Ramsey is a beta player

  2. Kante is a very good player but wenger would never buy him because he has his favourites.

    And after all why would he leave the premier league champions to join a club contented with just 4 th place

    1. The reported £20 million release clause has got wenger sweating! ??

      He is debating whether to go £2 over the 20 million fee,
      Just incase… the +£1 fails again! ???

  3. Jam-packed Midfield

    Arsenal plays with two recognized midfielders….. There’s coq, santi, Elneny, ramsey, wilshere, flame (Possibly Leaving) , Arteta (possibly Leaving) , Rosicky(possibly Leaving)……then add to that Kante and Xhaka

    who would play ahead of who?

    [Assuming Ramsey is a constant]

    1. Arteta rosicky and flamini are as good as gone. Wilshire cazorla and ramsey are always suffering injuries and coquelin seems to be joining them.

  4. Look, leave Leicester players alone already!
    I will happy if Wenger doesn’t sign him,let them player again together next season…

    We play a different style to Leicester..Coq is good enough and then we have Elneny too,that’s enough..
    Cazorla,Wilshere can play alongside either Coq or Elneny..

    I know Coq’s form has dipped but you can say that for the whole team this season…

    We need a striker and a good defender,that’s all,and we can then promote Toral or anyone in midfield…

    1. “Good enough” is not good enough to win PL or CL
      Also we need more than just a CF and CB

      We need a RB, and if Theo leaves we need a winger.
      We also need backup to Coquelin. Eleney is b2b

    2. You are damp right. We have a style of play different to that of Leicester. Our style of play often invites hard challenges from opponents. That’s why most teams are always extra pumped up to play us. If Kante is in our midfield, I bet he may encounter a broken leg quickly. We don’t need him. Our style may ruin his career. We only need a solid and no nonsense CB that is ready to nod anyone’s head to clear balls during set pieces. We need also a CM with steel and character and finally a world class mobile striker in Henry or Robin Van Purse-string mould that can score even with his nose.

  5. N’Golo Kante is an important player for Leicester and the Foxes will do everything they can to hold on to him, Riyad Mahrez, Kaspar Schmeichel, and Jamie Vardy. Those are the “Big 4” for Leicester but these aren’t the only important players. Leicester oculd hold on to all four and still slide. Why?

    There are four reasons, each one critical to why Leicester are Champions.

    1. They play well as a team. Leicester players accept their roles and the established pecking order.
    2. Their back four was exceptional, especially from Christmas until April.
    3. They were awarded double the penalties of any other side to the Christmas period. ten for LC compared to five for the next closest teams.
    4. They were healthy. Leicester had a very thin squad. Last season Vardy missed a few games, Schmeichel missed a few, and they were in a relegation dogfight.

    This summer Leicester will add talent. They may or may not lose their top players. Even if they keep all four big stars, this new talent will wantto play and will not accept their roles with the team. This could upset the team chemistry. Okazaki, for example, has accepted his role as support to Vardy. What happens if his place is usurped by a new signing? Will that player accept that role? That’s unknown. Adding stars always changed the dynamic of the team. It could be argued that adding Pedro to Chelsea is one of the thigns, besides mourinho’s ego, that cost the Blues their top 4 place.

    Logic says the Foxes will lose at least some of their top players will but the owners have spent £300 million on this team behind the scenes and they’ll do everything they can to stay competitive. They just might, by overpaying, hand on to their big 4, including Kante, but it won’t be enough. Morgan, Huth, Albrighton, Drinkwater, Okazaki, Schlupp, Simpson, and Ulloa wil also find themselves courted by other teams looking to capture some of Leicester’s magic. The Foxes can’t afford to pay them all the way most top 4 clubs pay their players. Again, this can and probably will affect team chemistry.

    The back four were exceptional. Wes Morgan is a Leicester player and like Vardy, undoubtedly feels loyalty toward the club that will make him harder to pry loose. He would have to be wooed and awed by a massive wage/contract in order to leave and at 32, it is hard to see a top team paying huge wages to a center back who had two years of top flight experience.

    Huth on the other hand, is a German internaitonal, not a long-time Fox, and won’t require a huge contract to move. Twenty or thirty thousand more would probably tempt him and that’s peanuts to a big team with center back issues. Totteham, just as a example, have two older CBs and their top man Alderweireld, is injured. Vertongen has missed time in recent seasons to injury as well. Huth might look like a good, relatively inexpensive, insurance policy.

    Christian Fuchs has played his best football this past season. Part of that is, no doubt, ue to the two men inside him and the fact that the back four were unchanged for almost the entire season. Like Huth and Morgan, Fuchs is older, but he is not a long-time LC player and his performance this past year might encourage a team like Everton, Tottenham, or even Chelsea, Arsenal, or Man City; to bring him in as a short-term option.

    If there is disruption in that back 4, they won’t be as steady and even a slight drop off could spell doom. Leicester were not good down the stretch. They eked out a mnumber of narrow but critical 1-0 wins. A less sound back 4 would erase those wins.

    At this point, any transfer talk is speculaiton. Teams keep lists of targets, but no one knows if the players on those lists are available. For the last three years Arsene Wenger has been censured for “failing” to sign Edinson Cavani from PSG. No one else signedh im either, which leads any rational person to conclude that he’s not available. PSG does not balance their books by selling players, so if they want too keep Cavani, as they have, as long as he’s under contract, they can keep him.

    Kante, who is under contract, can’t go anywhere unless Leicester sell him. It could be that the owners at Leicester will do some of the same math Arsene Wenger had to do for the last decade, and sell one or two stars to keep the rest intact. They might take the Abramovic/Sheikh Mansoor path and pump piles of cash into the club to keep the team together, which they can do with FFP rules all but erased. They might also decide, we had our run, let’s accept this as a lucky run, take out profits, and do the best we can while we balance the books.

    Whatever they decide, Kante is a Leicester player and no one, not Arsneal, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, or anyone else; can sign him if the Foxes won’t sell. We saw that with Schneiderlin and Southampton a season ago, we saw the same with the Saints and Wanyama, and Berahino and West Brom this year. Contracts do matter.

    Keeping a player can backfire as the Berahino situaiton proves, but Berahino cost himself more with his petulance than he hurt the Baggies. West Brom may get less for him this summer than they would have gotten last summer or this past January, and Berahino almost certainly eroded any wages he might have earned by his mediocre play during his dispute with the club. SSo before everyone starts picturing Kante in Arsenal red, Chelsea Blue, Real Madrid White, or Man City sky blue, remember, he’s a Fox until they sell him or his contract runs out.

    1. I would be surprised if any of the Leicester player’s would want to leave, they have achieved a once in a lifetime fairytale at the club and i can imagine that the same player’s will all want to stay and have ago at writing the next chapter in their adventure in the champions league.

      1. That’s also the reason they want to leave, fatty. Mark my words, there’ll be no repetition of this lifetime story, not by Leicester again. Apart from us, that less of changes, other big clubs will make changes. City, Chelsea, or prob Manure will have new managers. Not to mention L’pool who will look for reinforcement and the settle form of Spuds. I won’t be surprise if this new reign champion could fall down during their shocking ECL involvement. Besides, I almost sure that Leicester is not rich enough to hold their players (who’ll demand new level of salaries) all together. This is their chances to lift up their personal pay check and career elsewhere.

    2. WHAT??? Leicester will spent 300 M pounds behind the scenes to hold their players? Where did you hear the news? They can even make new team full of stars with all that money. Even Chelsea and City were constantly spend over than 100 M a year. Not to mention Barca, Muenchen, or Real Madrid. 300 M? That’s so BS dude!

  6. Superb player but I think it’d be better to give some playing time to Toral and Gedalem and spend the money on a CB and a striker. Put it this way, i’ll be gutted if Arsenal don’t buy at least one top striker, annoyed if we don’t buy a top CB who’s dominant in the air and only a bit disappointed if we miss out on Kante or Xhaka. Excluding van Persie we haven’t had a decent striker since Henry left. Could understand why when the money was tight but now the excuse we get is “there are no suitable targets”, which is BS.

  7. If Wenger adds to the squad (a big doubt knowing this stubborn fool!) then he must clear out some of the dead weight that either contributes nothing to the squad or has no future with the club. Walcott, Cazorla, Arteta, Rosicky, Mertesacker, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Welbeck, Jenkinson, Campbell, and possibly others.

    Clearly, the squad isn’t good enough. Drastic changes need to be made or another season will be wasted. I couldn’t blame Alexis or Ozil if they wanted to move on to an ambitious club.

    The team needs to be re-formed into a tougher, bigger, harder working team.

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