Chelsea can't afford Kante gamble amid injury woes

Karan Tejwani

• Updated: 19 Oct 2022 07:07 CDT
• 3 min read

The future of Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante is unclear, as the Frenchman enters the final months of his contract at Stamford Bridge, with talks of a renewal ongoing but not positive.

Chelsea confirmed last night that Kante’s surgery to repair his hamstring was successful and that he will miss about four months, ruling him out of France’s World Cup campaign, and raising questions over his Chelsea future.

The Frenchman has already missed 14 games this season due to injury and is yet to play under new manager Graham Potter, who joined the club in September this year.

With that, Chelsea will strongly consider whether it is worth extending Kante’s deal, which is worth about £290,000-a-week, making him one of the club’s highest-earners.

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Chelsea have big decision to make

Kante has been involved in great successes for Chelsea over the years, including Premier League in 2017, FA Cup in 2018, Europa League in 2019 and Champions League in 2021.

However, his minutes on the pitch have constantly declined in since the Blues’ Europa League win, where he played with injections in his knee: 4,185 in 2018-19; 2,303 in 2019-20; 3,151 in 2020-21 and 2,713 last season.

Chelsea have identified that and have made a contract proposal: two years on reduced terms, but Kante is stalling, which has caught the interest of clubs like Barcelona and Juventus.

Over the last year or so, Kante’s injury record has meant that he is no longer a crucial player for them, and that the Blues can either function without him, or finding a way to work without him.

Chelsea took a big risk in going into the season with a midfielder with a flawed fitness record, and they will be looking to rectify that error in the January transfer window by signing another player.

While Kante may not be given the terms he wants, if he leaves Chelsea, he will go down as one of their most vital players in recent times, and his contributions to their second Champions League success won’t be forgotten.

Kante is one of this generation’s finest midfielders, having won nearly everything there is to win for club and country, and his quick rise and peak between 2016 and 2021 was a joy to witness.

Chelsea themselves are going for a new approach – they have a vision to integrate younger talent as part of “Vision 2030”, which will also see them make the best use of academy players they have coming through.

If they want to pursue that, keeping Kante on with his fitness record and maintaining his status as one of the club’s high earners would be far from ideal.