Former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has been speaking about signing N’Golo Kante, the key moment in his title win.
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Antonio Conte has done a really interesting interview with the Athletic where he covers his whole career, and has an interesting anecdote about his time at Chelsea.
His team won the league rather unexpectedly, and a major part of that was the coup of signing N’Golo Kante in the summer when he arrived. Conte says it almost didn’t happen.
“We hadn’t made any big signings. We signed David Luiz, Marcos Alonso and Kante — the club asked me 10 times if I was sure about him. He wasn’t the typical Chelsea player: tall and handsome. He was the sort of bloke who, when you saw him, was just… well, when I first saw him, I had a few doubts myself about his physicality (laughs), but I was so convinced he was a top player.”
Kante ends up being huge hit at Chelsea
Because of how successful he ended up being, it’s easy to forget there were indeed doubts about Kante’s move to Chelsea. More than his looks, they were to do with whether he was something of a “one season wonder”, and how his skillset would translate from a miracle Leicester team to a Chelsea team with a very different style and expectations.
Well, we all know how it ended up…
In other news…
Cesar Azpilicueta is confident his old team can get back to their best under new manager Xabi Alonso.
Alex Scott is turning into an absolute star – and Chelsea are “front of the queue” to sign him.
Alejandro Garnacho has moved to Aston Villa on loan and is finally getting some minutes, albeit in friendlies.
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