Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has made a statement on star midfielder N’Golo Kante amid transfer speculation surrounding the French international, according to a report in the Mirror.
According to the report, it looks certain that Kante will remain at Chelsea given Blues boss Lampard’s latest comments about the star midfielder.
Kante has established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in world football after his move from Leicester to Chelsea, winning the Premier League with both clubs in successive seasons in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
He also won the FA Cup and Europa League with Chelsea since his move from Leicester.
The French midfielder has been linked to Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in recent months but it now looks as though Kante is firmly in Lampard’s plans going forward if the Chelsea manager’s latest comments are to be believed.
Speaking about Kante to BT Sport as cited in the Mirror, Lampard said:
“We had four or five of those (injured players) when we finished playing recently,”
“N’Golo Kante is obviously a great example because he’s played four or five incredible seasons in terms of his individual success and he’s been used quite rightly by his managers a lot.”
“This season he’s played only about 40% of our games and even then it’s been difficult for him and I’ve really felt for him on an individual level. He’s been a huge miss for us.”
“Looking forward, whenever a restart comes we want to get him in the best shape, want to get Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the best shape.”
“We’ve had slightly different plans for them but they’ve been scuppered with what we’ve had to do. The players’ health comes first, the mental well-being of the players comes first.”
“We obviously need N’Golo Kante back in our team, one of the best players in the world. I knew that before I became manager of Chelsea and know that now from working with him.”
“I haven’t been able to have him much this year and going forward we, of course, want him fit and raring to go.”
The French world cup winning midfielder has three years left on his contract at Chelsea and looks likely to remain at the club until his contract expires as the Blues have no plans of selling the player.