Confirmed Transfer N'Golo Kante to Chelsea

[Cambridge_fox]

Thanks for the memories Kante. Last season you replaced Neil Lennon as my favourite Leicester player of all time. Shame you don't want another go, but there it is.

 

[Robin127]

And the football revolution

I never understood the "football revolution" bit. All the talk of the extra money in the game bringing a more level playing field is bollocks, the teams like Leicester will have more money but the "rich" clubs will still have more. The extra money just moved the top and bottom bars higher up the money ladder, the gap between rich and poor is still the same.

 

[stkrk7]

ngolo Turncoat

 

[Real Sharapova]

We buy players from other clubs that didn't want to lose that player, we lose players to other clubs that we didn't want to go. That's the world of football ladies and gentlemen. Good luck to him and we move on. Next.

 

[MerseyFox]

Disappointing - but we will march on

 

[Jeff]

 

[Speedy1]

That's all very well N'golo, and I'm so pleased the club and their fans will remain in your memory. However the best Chelsea can offer to help you reach those "high ambitions" of your's is a crack at league title which you've already won and maybe CL the following year which you would have had with us as a certainty. Are you sure its not just the money???

Anyway, much as I loved you, I'm really finding it hard to wish you well right now. Maybe in a year or two when I've gotten over this.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

Kante was angling for a move to Marseille before he came here and arguably part of the reason he came was because Marseille wouldn't stump up the cash. Arguably for him we were always going to be a stepping stone onto his dream big-team move. He's played his part in a great achievement that will go down in the history books. However if he thinks a move to Chelsea is going to yield a shitload of silverware I wouldn't be so sure....

We probably couldn't compete with Chelsea's wage offer either.

Hopefully we don't lose too many, convincing Walsh to stay on IMO should be an absolute priority.

For next year's title my money would be on Man City edging Man Utd as both those teams look to have strengthened a lot this transfer window. Hopefully we can keep plugging away and proving people wrong who think we'll implode when a few big-time Charlies move on....

 

[Orifice]

He's not arsed about FC Leicester. He's been told that Chelsea FC are 'a great club'. The coach has given a good speech.

Just another bloke that plays professional football.

 

[SwedeFox]

I don't find N'Golo's decision particularly surprising or upsetting at all. Not because we won't miss him. Every team would miss a player like that. I just don't think there's anything mysterious about this.

For those who are saying he could stay another year risk-free, play CL and move next year if he wanted to - no, there's a big risk involved in that. There is no conceivable way in which Kanté would get a better starting point for negotiations than right now. He had the perfect season which made him one of the most wanted players in Europe. Even if he had another good season with us, next year it would be someone else who would have a spectacular season and he would only be clubs' second or third choice or even worse. Only the very best defensive midfielders are that sought after as Kanté has been.

It may be true in some sense that we made Kanté a star, but even more so is the reverse. We gave Kanté the opportunity to play every week on the big stage, he repaid us by being sensational in pretty much every game being a vital part of our title-winning team. There really is no outstanding debt for us to claim.

I don't even find it particularly strange that he chose Chelsea. Conte is a very special manager, especially for someone who deals with defensive duties. Of course money must have played its part and that's unfortunate for us as we don't have as much as Chelsea do. If you want to make the moral judgment that professional footballers shouldn't pay that much attention to the money part, fine. I don't think I would be any different in their situation so I won't.

Kanté hardly chose Leicester because he had a long-standing ambition to put Leicestershire on the map. He bought a ticket to the Premier League. If you had signed for Montpellier in 2011 and you had PSG or Marseille or Lyon offering insane amounts of money the year after, would you consider it?

Don't want to drag out the tedious "what's a big club" debate again and if you personally can't see why anyone would choose Chelsea over Leicester, again that's fine. I can just assure you that in most parts of the world, Chelsea, rightly or wrongly, are a many times bigger club than us. It will take several years for us consistently challenging for the title in order to change that. There's no football revolution, there's a blip on the curve. A glorious, magnificent, highly unexpected blip, but a blip nonetheless.

Kanté didn't lead us on in any way. He must have indicated early on to the club that he wanted to leave as we could finalise the Mendy deal early (the Mercury can state as many times they want that he's not a replacement but I very much doubt that we'd be as keen to get another defensive midfielder if we knew that Kanté was staying. Not to mention the fact that Kanté was actually bought last year as a "replacement" for failing to sign Mendy).

Not to forget, we've also made a huge ****ing profit from this. Money-wise it's by far the best piece of business in the history of the club. I didn't want us to sell him but as we clearly had to, that's obviously a great thing.

All I see here are parties that have conducted themselves professionally in every aspect. If every player we bought was a money-grabbing, short-sighted world-beater like Kanté, I'd be a happy man. I hope Chelsea go down and that Kanté becomes a huge flop but only because he's not a Leicester City player anymore, not because of anything personal.

 

[Speedy1]

I don't find N'Golo's decision particularly surprising or upsetting at all. Not because we won't miss him. Every team would miss a player like that. I just don't think there's anything mysterious about this.

For those who are saying he could stay another year risk-free, play CL and move next year if he wanted to - no, there's a big risk involved in that. There is no conceivable way in which Kanté would get a better starting point for negotiations than right now. He had the perfect season which made him one of the most wanted players in Europe. Even if he had another good season with us, next year it would be someone else who would have a spectacular season and he would only be clubs' second or third choice or even worse. Only the very best defensive midfielders are that sought after as Kanté has been.

It may be true in some sense that we made Kanté a star, but even more so is the reverse. We gave Kanté the opportunity to play every week on the big stage, he repaid us by being sensational in pretty much every game being a vital part of our title-winning team. There really is no outstanding debt for us to claim.

I don't even find it particularly strange that he chose Chelsea. Conte is a very special manager, especially for someone who deals with defensive duties. Of course money must have played its part and that's unfortunate for us as we don't have as much as Chelsea do. If you want to make the moral judgment that professional footballers shouldn't pay that much attention to the money part, fine. I don't think I would be any different in their situation so I won't.

Kanté hardly chose Leicester because he had a long-standing ambition to put Leicestershire on the map. He bought a ticket to the Premier League. If you had signed for Montpellier in 2011 and you had PSG or Marseille or Lyon offering insane amounts of money the year after, would you consider it?

Don't want to drag out the tedious "what's a big club" debate again and if you personally can't see why anyone would choose Chelsea over Leicester, again that's fine. I can just assure you that in most parts of the world, Chelsea, rightly or wrongly, are a many times bigger club than us. It will take several years for us consistently challenging for the title in order to change that. There's no football revolution, there's a blip on the curve. A glorious, magnificent, highly unexpected blip, but a blip nonetheless.

Kanté didn't lead us on in any way. He must have indicated early on to the club that he wanted to leave as we could finalise the Mendy deal early (the Mercury can state as many times they want that he's not a replacement but I very much doubt that we'd be as keen to get another defensive midfielder if we knew that Kanté was staying. Not to mention the fact that Kanté was actually bought last year as a "replacement" for failing to sign Mendy).

Not to forget, we've also made a huge ****ing profit from this. Money-wise it's by far the best piece of business in the history of the club. I didn't want us to sell him but as we clearly had to, that's obviously a great thing.

All I see here are parties that have conducted themselves professionally in every aspect. If every player we bought was a money-grabbing, short-sighted world-beater like Kanté, I'd be a happy man. I hope Chelsea go down and that Kanté becomes a huge flop but only because he's not a Leicester City player anymore, not because of anything personal.

That's far too sensible and well reasoned SwedeFox.

 

[Longcliffe]

Kante was brilliant last season. I would've loved him to stay but times change.
Whether Amartey or Mendy can fulfill this role we'll find out.
Come on the City!!!!

 

[Durham Fox]

Did really well for us. Will watch on with interest if he still has the hunger to succeed after arriving at his dream club on more money than most people can imagine. Especially interesting if Chelsea don't get off to a good start.

 

[alex]

Spot on Duzza

 

[Matt_B]

I don't find N'Golo's decision particularly surprising or upsetting at all. Not because we won't miss him. Every team would miss a player like that. I just don't think there's anything mysterious about this.

For those who are saying he could stay another year risk-free, play CL and move next year if he wanted to - no, there's a big risk involved in that. There is no conceivable way in which Kanté would get a better starting point for negotiations than right now. He had the perfect season which made him one of the most wanted players in Europe. Even if he had another good season with us, next year it would be someone else who would have a spectacular season and he would only be clubs' second or third choice or even worse. Only the very best defensive midfielders are that sought after as Kanté has been.

It may be true in some sense that we made Kanté a star, but even more so is the reverse. We gave Kanté the opportunity to play every week on the big stage, he repaid us by being sensational in pretty much every game being a vital part of our title-winning team. There really is no outstanding debt for us to claim.

I don't even find it particularly strange that he chose Chelsea. Conte is a very special manager, especially for someone who deals with defensive duties. Of course money must have played its part and that's unfortunate for us as we don't have as much as Chelsea do. If you want to make the moral judgment that professional footballers shouldn't pay that much attention to the money part, fine. I don't think I would be any different in their situation so I won't.

Kanté hardly chose Leicester because he had a long-standing ambition to put Leicestershire on the map. He bought a ticket to the Premier League. If you had signed for Montpellier in 2011 and you had PSG or Marseille or Lyon offering insane amounts of money the year after, would you consider it?

Don't want to drag out the tedious "what's a big club" debate again and if you personally can't see why anyone would choose Chelsea over Leicester, again that's fine. I can just assure you that in most parts of the world, Chelsea, rightly or wrongly, are a many times bigger club than us. It will take several years for us consistently challenging for the title in order to change that. There's no football revolution, there's a blip on the curve. A glorious, magnificent, highly unexpected blip, but a blip nonetheless.

Kanté didn't lead us on in any way. He must have indicated early on to the club that he wanted to leave as we could finalise the Mendy deal early (the Mercury can state as many times they want that he's not a replacement but I very much doubt that we'd be as keen to get another defensive midfielder if we knew that Kanté was staying. Not to mention the fact that Kanté was actually bought last year as a "replacement" for failing to sign Mendy).

Not to forget, we've also made a huge ****ing profit from this. Money-wise it's by far the best piece of business in the history of the club. I didn't want us to sell him but as we clearly had to, that's obviously a great thing.

All I see here are parties that have conducted themselves professionally in every aspect. If every player we bought was a money-grabbing, short-sighted world-beater like Kanté, I'd be a happy man. I hope Chelsea go down and that Kanté becomes a huge flop but only because he's not a Leicester City player anymore, not because of anything personal.

The most sensible post on the subject by far.

 

[Feriol]

As much as we all hope that LCFC are now a 'big' club, as has been said, it remains to be proven.

Also the clubs (Ranieri's) statement that he expects the club to finish between 10th and 6th, and various player statements that they aren't thinking about the title or their aim is survival, might understandably not meet the ambitions of a player like Kante who now finds himself considered one of the best players in the world in his position.

Let's just hope that other players and staff are happy with our current ambitions and are prepared to help us build.