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N’Golo Kante can be the new Claude Makele for club and country

N’Golo Kante can be the new Claude Makele for club and country

There are few players like N’Golo Kante. With football suffering a relative dearth of defensive, structural talent, the Frenchman is something of an exceptional anomaly. His kind don’t come along very often, going some way to explain why Chelsea were so keen to lure him from Leicester City in a £30 million switch.

Kante is the type of player around which dynasties are built. Antonio Conte now has the platform to construct his team upon, with the Stamford Bridge club snatching one of European football’s most sought after players before one of their rivals could. It could set them up for the next decade.

“The opportunity to work with Antonio Conte, a brilliant coach, and some of the best players in the world was simply too good to turn down,” explained the midfielder. “My first season in English football was very special and now I hope to go on to achieve even more during my time as a Chelsea player. I am looking forward to meeting up with my new team-mates and helping the club achieve a lot of success.”

Chelsea have needed a player like Kante ever since the departure of Claude Makelele eight years ago. The Blues have enjoyed domestic and continental success in the time since the Frenchman’s exit, but they have never been as structurally sound as they were with Makelele holding things together in the centre of the pitch.

‘The Makelele Role’ redefined what was expected of a central midfielder in the modern age, with Chelsea midfielders held to such a standard. Lassana Diarra came close to filling it, as did Nemanja Matic, but Kante is the closest thing to Makelele football has ever produced. They are players of the same mould.

However, Chelsea must appreciate what they have this time. While Makelele was revered at Stamford Bridge his quality was never truly comprehended until he retired from the game. The same was the case at Real Madrid and for the French national team as well. Makelele, like so many great artists, was only afforded the admiration they deserved when he was gone.

Kante can be the new Makelele for both club and country. His tactical importance cannot be understated, with his signing instantly boosting Chelsea’s chances of mounting a genuine Premier League challenge this season. The Frenchman was integral to everything achieved at Leicester City over the past year. He could be just as successful at Stamford Bridge.

Of course, there are still a few missing parts as Conte continues to assemble his team ahead of the new campaign. Kante is just one of the many players needed to recalibrate a side which had grown stale and misshapen under Jose Mourinho. But by signing the 25-year-old Chelsea have found the most significant piece to their work-in-progress puzzle.

Tactically, Kante will be a lynchpin for Chelsea. He could be used in either a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 formation by Conte. The Frenchman covers the middle of the pitch in such a way he is somewhat adaptable in his exact position. He is a one-man midfield anchor, regardless of the space he occupies on paper.

“Last season in the first five leagues of Europe, he was number one at recovering the ball. He is showing his quality now here,” his former manager Claudio Ranieri explained. “He is fantastic because he reads the situation very well. If you look at him, his movement, he attracts the ball. He is very smart and very fast in his movement. He is quiet but he can improve a lot because he can play like a central midfielder like when I had Makelele.”

Now Conte must find the right midfielder partner for his new central destroyer. Matic could be freed from the defensive responsibilities that so often looked to drag him down last season, with the Serbian given the role that is more befitting of his natural qualities. Maybe Cesc Fabregas will be deployed alongside Kante in a midfield duo or perhaps even a trio.

That, among other things, is something Conte will ponder between now and the start of the season. There are pressing questions in goals, in defence, in midfield and in attack that require answers rather quickly. But at least he has the new Makelele to count on.